Meridia Porter

Name: Meridia Porter
Chronicle: Chantry Steelhaven

Nature: Caregiver
Demeanour: Guardian
Essence: Pattern

Resonance: Devotional, infused with primal energy, very tasty to vampires.
Aura: A sparkling, shining corona of blue with strong patterns throughout of gold and white, appears as a spirit-beacon in the Shadowlands.

Affiliation: Celestial Chorus (Spirit)
Sect: None
Concept: Wounded Saviour


Strength: 1
Dexterity: 4 (Feline Reflexes)
Stamina: 3

Charisma: 3
Manipulation: 1
Appearance: 2

Perception: 4 (Uncanny Insight)
Intelligence: 2
Wits: 4 (Street Survivor)


Talents
Alertness: 3
Athletics: 2
Awareness: 4 (Mystic Instincts)
Streetwise: 2
High Ritual: 3

Skills
Meditation: 2
Stealth: 2
Survival: 1

Knowledges
Enigmas: 2
Theology: 3
Esoterica: 2
Cosmology: 2
Lore: Spirits 1


Spheres
Life: 3
Prime: 1
Spirit: 3

Arete: 3
Willpower: 8

Quintessence: 3
Paradox: 0

Backgrounds
Avatar: 3
Cult: 2
Sanctum: 2


Merits & Flaws:

Clear Sighted - Meridia has always had an eye for tricks. Perception + Awareness reveals supernatural deceptions, reduce difficulty by -3 vs mundane tricks.
Spark of Life - Meridia is particularly attuned to the flows of life and spirit energy. She heals faster, is better at healing others, and her touch soothes aches.
True Faith - The One is important to Meridia, a figure that she is utterly devoted to. Her faith is visible in her aura, +1 dice for countermagick and willpower.
Medium - Meridia's spiritual presence draws and calms the restless dead, -2 socials, talk without magick and she senses ghosts with Perception + Awareness.
Spirit Magnet - Meridia's vivid aura and caring practice draws both minor and potent spirits. The spirits that surround her may at some points help her.

Offline - Meridia maintains no web presence and barely likes using mobiles. She's sure computers are magic she doesn't get, or just technocracy nonsense.
Youthful Appearance - Looking as young as she does, Meridia will be identified as too young to enter spaces, buy goods or seem unworthy of respect.
Echoes - Meridia has an air of pastoral warmth and compassion. She falters in areas of extreme profanity or where darker cosmologies influence.
Soft-Hearted - Meridia's attunement to the hidden world makes pain physical and visible. Meridia withdraws or intervenes if she fails  difficulty 8 willpower rolls.

~~~

Creation Points:

~~~

Our Faith is Our Power

Being deeply invested in the values of Unitarian Universalism, Meridia's understanding of Magick relies on her own personal understanding of Consensus and what that means in relation to Sleepers and Ascension.

An individual mage's belief is what decides how her magick works, this much is clear. Meridia has spent some time around those who demonstrate True Faith and various Will Workers over the years. One common theme has been how self-actualisation plays a big part in how individuals can exercise their power and the limits of their abilities. Her thoughts go to the various cultural interpretations and religious beliefs. She simply reconciles the differences between each into her understandings of individual reality and shared realities.

Meridia sees all faiths as valid and true, and all personal beliefs as valid and true, so long as there exists sufficient devotion to it. This doesn't necessarily mean she agrees with every faith, and she does have her own personal principles to abide by.

In her mind, most Technocrats are just narccisistic, misunderstanding their relationship with the world. Her view on the secular isn't as harsh as this, most seeing them as pitiable.

Devotion

Devotion is an eclectic gathering of practices and beliefs from various faiths and can rapidly switch from reading out biblical verse to more new age practices within the very same ritual. Devotion tends to be strongest when using practices aligned closely with the most predominant sleepers (particularly when viewed by those sleepers who practice local faiths) or with a variety of different practices from various faiths tied robustly by shared cross-cultural themes.

While mostly a spiritually charged practice related to organised religion, Devotion simply relies on strong beliefs and can easily be attached to whatever cultural traditions are necessary. A Master of Spirit who practices Devotion, if within a powerfully charged space, could even twist their magick to give shape to concepts such as "The Spirit of Communism" or manifestations of similar ideologies.

Because this practice essentially relies very strictly on consensual practices, this practice generally plays nicely with the Consensus up until the point a will-worker begins to impose their belief over others or performs miracles in otherwise profane/secular spaces.

Instruments of Devotion

Blessings and Consecration, Energy, Touch, Prayers and Invocations, Sacred Iconography, Possession, Group Rites are favoured by Meridia. She often includes other typical chorist or faith instruments into her workings, but these are mostly garnish.

Meridia has surpassed the need for Group Rites in her spells due to her confidence in her own potential to will-work without support. She still enjoys these.

Abilities of Devotion

Awareness, Expression, Meditation, Enigmas, Occult, Lucid Dreaming, Esoterica, High Ritual, Theology, Cosmology, Belief Systems.
~~~

Belongings

Meridia was never much of a packrat, and a lot of her current possessions have been scattered across the Umbra or are in the ruins of her former Chantry.

A rosary with a crucifix end piece and a pair of folded hands holding a rose as the centerpiece and beads made to look like roses, dark brown with a hint of green.

Background

Meridia Porter's story begins on the streets. Left outside a place of worship one night by her parents, she was taken in by the state and spent many years drifting in and out of different homes. As she grew, the girl seemed (not unusually) quite detached from her surroundings, never quite feeling at place or at home wherever she was taken. People overwhelmed her no matter how hard they tried to soften their voices or calm their emotions. Meridia had always been unusually perceptive of how people truly felt about something, so any source of emotional distress tended to be echoed back.

After a decade or so of drifting in and out of homes and between agencies, Meridia just left to the streets to be alone. Young and inexperienced, she would frequently come back until she had the basic skills down for surviving without the help of others. Her abilities to read others were very useful when it came to begging for food or avoiding dangers. She had a knack for knowing when someone was in a violent mood, or feeling more charitable.

She was raised by the streets for years afterwards, learning how cities tended to operated outside the boundaries of regular society. Her life was... simple, if difficult. The colder seasons months drove her to desperation, and the longer she spent without good food and clothes, the worse her ability to withstand winter got. One night she was driven to the point of death by a violent storm, and gathered just enough energy to stumble to one place she knew was nearby, the church she was left at as an infant.

When morning arrived, so did a minister from out of town. Within the half hour, Meridia was sat inside with something to eat and warmer clothes. This interaction was enough to set her on a new path of faith. She spoke for a while with this Minister, an extremely confident, eccentric person of faith who seemed to visibly sparkle in Meridia's eyes.

Meridia's life completely changed from that meeting. The care and loving treatment she recieved brought out a spark that she hadn't recognised in herself. This raw expression of love and care gave her an insight into humanity that she could never have gained from her experiences on the streets. It was at this point she awakened suddenly, becoming crushingly aware of her conversational partner's auric energies and a growing sense of vitality within her own self. Meridia passed out immediately after, coming to and leaving before the congregation arrived.

Meridia searched for this minister for a while, but couldn't find any sign of her, not even a whisper or rumour of her presence. Meridia spent more and more time at the church, hoping that someone would know something, or that the minister would return. This didn't happen, but other Awakened were soon drawn to Meridia's fervent questions, and she was quickly drawn into the fold amongst Choristers, who taught her more about herself and who she was now.

The connections between different faiths became clear to her the more she listened to passionate voices talk about their faith, and Meridia began to refine her own unique practice based on various cultural and religious beliefs. The idea of just one single truth seemed strange to her, so she accepted that there must be truth in everything, and for all she knew, everything could be true.

Guided by the spirits when the time felt right, Meridia left what had always been something of a make-do band of her peers, travelling to meet various people across the country and provide her healing where she could. Her journey ended in Boston where the Five Sisters resided, having found a condemned chapel and being particularly welcomed by the faithful there due to her growing confidence and a few miracles that seemed to really resonate in the area.

When the opportunity to build a new Chantry with an old friend arose, she leapt at the chance and got to work, only to watch all her efforts be torn apart...

~~~

Meridia's Cult

Meridia has collected a gathering of the intensely faithful who have witnessed her miracles across synagogues, mosques, temples and other various non-uniform places of worship. These tend to come and go as they please, and faces often change as she moves. There are few expectations, although Meridia is extremely protective of her flock and will frequently grant blessings or healings as required.

Meridia's Sanctum

A condemned chapel that is rumoured to be haunted, cursed or full of dangerous materials. Any danger that was once there has long been cleared out by Meridia herself, and she has set up additional protections and magick to keep threats and those lacking faith away. Magickal energies are attuned towards personal beliefs and mystical sources of power, but such a place would not be so welcoming to those who practice irreverent magick that aims to downplay mysticism in the world.

Rotes

Life Rotes:

Prime Rotes:

Spirit Rotes:

The character looks great so far. I look forwards to reading their background. Do you have an idea for how they ended up in Boston with Steelhaven Hall, are they local or have they just moved to Boston?

She is a Boston local who I imagine may have just slipped beneath the radar of even some of the most vigilant eyes for now.

She will have started voicing her desire to connect with others recently and made moves to step into the limelight just a little more recently. Truth is, she's alone in an extremely dangerous world, and that's never a good thing. Even she knows that.

For those who care to keep track of such a thing, the rather sudden appearance of a talented Mage like Meridian might have been of some interest and turned a few heads.

I imagine with her particular skillset and a touch of luck, she will have found her way exactly where she needed to be to really develop her potential.

Full-write up is pending me getting a minute to sit down and just touch fingers to keyboard, sorry for the delay on that but it might have to wait until the evening.

Yeah that is really why mages form Chantries, party to learn from one another but mostly for safety in numbers, there is allot of things in the World of Darkness who want a young mage dead.

Oh take your time, I am GMing D&D tonight so I might be a bit slow responding today anyway.

Hum...she might have witnessed some trouble with either Nephandi or the Technocracy and so have been taken to Horizon to give testimony, and then the mages from Boston who is currently there are asked to bring her home, that might be a good way for her to meet up with the mages from Steelhaven who is currently on Horizon for a trial, and a cybernetics convention. Unless you have other ideas for how to meet up with the rest of the player characters?

I'm imagining Meridian is interviewing with a couple different chantries at the moment, it's not impossible that with a few workings, she may have ended up just sort in the best place for her to be through bumbling.

Interestingly, her lack of a shadow or a reflection are also seen as common Nephandi traits to my understanding. Combine this with her seemingly appearing out of nowhere and at first glance that might raise some guards and have her brought in for questioning regarding her alleigance. Even if not identified as Nephandi immediately, lacking those things is usually a sign of some upleasant history so they might want to prod further regardless. Due to the difficulty of actually properly scrutinizing her, it may take a proper examination by some more experienced Mages and a little bit of questioning to determine that she isn't a threat to anyone.

With more experienced and level-headed mages in the room, it would probably be quickly realised that this is just an expression of her Arcane or tied into her furtive personality, things would likely be quickly resolved from there with a little embarassment.

This would possibly set her up to have a slightly adverserial relationship between her and some groups, and she might stick with whoever takes her away from that situation out of appreciation.

Holy mental atributes, Batman!

Well there have been allot of problems with Nephandi in the game, so if she is suspected of being a Widderslainte or Fallen she could have been captured and brought to Horizon for soemone to examine her Avatar, and then she is released upon finding she is not Fallen, then Steelhaven might be asked to bring her back to Boston since they have a Umbra ship and that could have been one of the Chantries she have been interested with so she get into contact with them and the other player characters at the same time.

The other Chantries in Boston by the way are:

Riverside: A small Chantry for nature mystics.

Westchapel: This Chantry is located in a old factory building converted to apartments and living quarters, it is a mixed Chantry but have a good amount of Technomancers.

Lux Iternis: The biggest Chantry in the Tribunal, a Hermetic Ansestral Chantry located at the university.

Five Sisters: A Celistial Chorus Ansestral Chantry, a small group of Christian mystics living together in a old villa.

There are also some Chantries in the suburban communities around Boston.

And if you've been bumming around the other Boston chantries for a while, you might have noticed that Lux Iternis has a really high-standing, butthurt jerkass in the form of a magically crippled Senior Enforcer of House Guernicus at present...

Yeah the Senior Enforcer for the Boston Tribunal have not been using much magick of late.

It's her own fault, though, didn't ask before getting grabby...

Poor Vittoria.

Wouldn't have happened to a nicer person.

For our new member who did not take part in that scene. Colin, Warp's character have a shard cluster Avatar, when the group needed to take out a Caul he jump in it, gambeling that the cluster of sharp shards would damage the Caul, it did, but Vittoria D'Angelo the senior Quesitor of Boston wanted to check if Colin had become corrupted, so she just reach in magickally to examine his soul, without his consent or a conviction that would let her do so legally, well again a shard cluster so she damaged her own Avatar on doing that, and have just recently started being able to work the most basic of magick again. Colin is not sorry.

Also, Colin trusts Vittoria about as far as he can throw the isle of Manhattan, which with a mere Forces 2 is not at all far...

Definitely deserved. I'm sure Meridian would be very upset if someone started prodding around without asking too.

Westchapel: I'm imagining Meridian might not exactly love this place as her and technology in general do not get along. One technomancer would probably be fine, but when you start adding multiple with all their little complicated device, there are bound to be some tears when her entropy magick starts intefering.

Lux Iternis: Lux Iternis feels kind of scholarly, which yeah, Meridian would probably be quite uncomfortable around given her own general lack of much book learning.

Five Sisters: I can imagine Meridian either playing on these folks sense of community or charity. Might have gotten a warm place to sleep or a few hot meals and basic lessons before probably parting ways with them (or just leaving with a brief note) when she realises she doesn't really fit in there or upon them realising that she's not exactly the picture of Christian grace.

Removed 1 Arcane + Street Ties, changed Child to Youthful Appearance.

Likely going to throw in Blacklisted or a similar flaw as a sort of anti-documentation and to give her a bit of a criminal record, probably stuff like Curfew or Vagrancy/Loitering more so than crimes like burglary or anything particularly violent. If I can dig up Undocumented I would use that.

Clear Sighted might fit if I shuffle some stuff around, it's kind of implied to go hand in hand with acute senses.

I wanted to get the backgroiund hammered out but I've been super busy all day and wanted to get some basic rotes down to give an idea of what kind of magick Meridian might perform.

Oh it was deserved indeed. Vittoria is one of the campaigns BBEGs to put it like that.

Yeah the Five Sisters would help out with a bed and a warm meal when anyone need it really.

Lux Iternins is a great place of learning but they are also arrogant when it comes to Orphans but they might be trying to recruit Meridian, more apprentices are always good.

Sounds like good Merits and Flaws and do not worry it have been a busy few days for me as well.

Now in first post.

Ohh nice. I like her background. Take ten extra freebie points for her and as soon as we all agree on why Meridian and Tragedy are on Horizon I will write an intro.

Ooh, thanks! I'm more than happy with the destroyed chantry > questioning idea, personally.

I'll have to work out what to spend these on. Probably a bit more Prime and some Avatar because that low Avatar was worrying me!

I've shifted things in her background a tiny bit so that she eventually plans to visit Boston and has identified a receptive congregation and a potential sanctum there, if we go for the slingshotted from one location back to Boston.

Edit: On second thought, I should probably give Meridia a bump of True Faith if that's okay, dedicated to The One? Also Medium since this is my last chance to grab Merits. She is kinda merit-heavy at the minute so do let me know if you think this is excessive at all?

Ok so we are going with her being a witness giving testimony then? And where she and Temptest from the same Chantry? Or is it that they just know one another?

Meridian wrote:I'll have to work out what to spend these on. Probably a bit more Prime and some Avatar because that low Avatar was worrying me!

Heh, should've seen Colin when the campaign started, I completely forgot (due to the absolute lack of emphasis in the rules about the necessity for an Avatar rating - that's a bad bit of design there) that he needed an Avatar rating. But he managed to grow it, bit by bit...

Yeah an Avatar rating is pretty important, now Colin have one though.