Meridia Porter

Yes... but how do they work? They have to fit the character's Paradigm and 'belief' - the character, after all has to believe that such things are possible.

Nick shall never be able to do 'Morning News' because [to paraphrase] she would deride the explanation offered as 'mystical crap', however if it was an Adept-based online news article analysis using statistical models, mathematics, origin-tracing and so on Nick would buy it. She may not have the ability/ies skills to pull off that [which is a different question entirely], but she's at least gets the theory.

Which is why I said you kinda need to nail the Paradigm/Belief first.

Like I said, those rotes could be used for inspiration, as examples of what sensory rotes could do.

Which is why I posted a link to the rotes database. It can give you an idea on what can be done. I also use Wyrmfoe now and then to give me ideas on Rotes. It's not as much use for me for obvious reasons, but I do occasionally try to see if it's possible to replicate said effects via technomancy...

Oh, Meridia's thing is kind of just a very basic chorister set up. She channels her will through her faith and uses rites, rituals, prayers, blessings etc.

Meridia was always a Sleepwalker due to her high Awareness and just awakened at her lowest point in life as people do.

She practices her faith in an omnitheistic fashion (every divine manifestation is an aspect of The One to her, how else can different religions simultaneously existing be reconciled?) and actually works her magick better when she mixes various symbols and beliefs rather than just one.

Her magick comes from her connection to The One, the belief that a small spark of that divinity is inside of her and everyone else.

...I can see Meridia and Colin might end up with some... interesting discussions...

Not as interesting as the ones with Nick...

Anyway, if your char believes that ultimately, they are only 'channelling' the powers of The One, then you shall need to work out what she believes that The One desires to grant favours on her. Most, if not all religions call on their priesthood to undertake special actions, rituals and/or 'styles of living' to gain their deity's favour. Catholic monks and nuns take oaths, ancient Israel had priests called 'Levites' who performed various ritual sacrifices, while Roman Vestal Virgins were... well, virgins.

In this case, it's quite possible that Meridia is working on her Rotes all the time - because she reached a kind of 'compact' with The One [so she believes] and she needs to do certain things/live in certain ways to maintain her 'grace' [ie call on The One to help her/allow her access to a smigeon of Their power]. For example, she may have taken a vow of poverty, feel the need to pray for X hours a day or to perform help for the poor/needy [this is the point where religion and shamanism end up overlapping, as shamans often to things like this to call on many 'spirits', while the 'priest' is only calling on one; their deity].

If you take this model, I would suggest you [and Great One] basically treat 'The One' as you would a Totem [either MtA or WtA] - that it needs to be 'served' before it grants it's powers and protection to the person, and you have to follow these strictures to maintain it. Nail down what Meridia has to 'do' to maintain her grace with The One, and then start working out what kinds of 'powers' she can call on and perhaps importantly, when. All the various different religions in the world etc would give some good ideas on what these Bans could be.

In this type of character, I could imagine her Avatar coming to her in meditation, sleep etc as some form of minor angel, or perhaps a departed saint/holy person who is there to guide them.

I'm thinking that the expectations on her are roughly threefold:

Harmony - Living a life in accordance with the world, working to upholding the sanctity of life and the health of the world. Not invoking needless paradox, respecting traditions, fixing what is broken.

Unification - Bringing people together to be a part of the same chorus, hearing the voices of others and reconciling differences. Being honest, making connections between others, respecting other beliefs.

Purity - Refusal to corrupt oneself or suffer the corrupted, purging or redeeming those discordant voices acting maliciously. Working to act against the agents of evil and Fallen, whether Nephandi or Demonic.

Also inspiring faith and keeping the faithful invested. Just generally being a "good" person.


Meridia's magick will probably be a pretty eclectic mix of religious rites and (high) rituals, lots of working with umbra and ephemera and spirits.

I mean, Colin is an atheist, in the non-worshiping way; he sees no more point in believing in gods than believing in the USPS. He's met and spoken with actual gods, and pretty much just views them as people - extremely powerful individuals with somewhat alien mindsets, but people nonetheless.

So, that's probably going to make for some really interesting conversations, y'know...

I would suggest that in this case, Meridia is not in 'communication' with any major spirit claiming to be God [though that would in fact be an interesting PC to play; a Chorister who's functionally a Dreamspeaker]. However, it is perhaps possible that they view some of the more 'honourable' spirits as perhaps angels or similar.

The One is kind of interesting. They’re kind of an alternative and operate on the same level as the Abrahamic god (while possibly being that god too). Their whole thing is is that they were a single lonely demiurge who created everything else and everyone sung in one chorus before people started to sing their own discordant songs. They’ve kinda gone quiet now. People believe they will come back when everyone sings the same chorus again.

In a way I do sort of see Meridia as a weird kind of dreamspeaker. She doesn’t necessarily believe the finer details of every single faith, but she does believe that any manifestation of divinity is an aspect of The One and a way to reach them.

On further thinking, I imagine Meridia's Paradigm probably leans into similar theming to Demons (Fallen Angels) since The One is the god that Demons know.

"Flesh is already a supple receptacle for faith. It's the reason why mortals can undergo psychic surgery,
walk across burning coals or manifest stigmata. The body is a conduit of faith."

"Before the Fall, demons had faith in their Creator and drew their power from Him."

She walks a sort of middle path as a mortal herself and leaning on awakened will more than angelic powers, drawing her power from direct devotion to The One but also her faith in humanity and the faith others have in her. This also heavily leans on the idea that chorister power is believed by some to be from True Faith instead of True Magick.

She is still a willworker, but this flavours her workings slightly. Her magick might resemble some low-torment lore abilities.

Question: what does Meridia see, in terms of auras?

It'll probably be significant for seeing Colin. And Serge.

On further thinking, I imagine Meridia's Paradigm probably leans into similar theming to Demons (Fallen Angels) since The One is the god that Demons know.

"Flesh is already a supple receptacle for faith. It's the reason why mortals can undergo psychic surgery,
walk across burning coals or manifest stigmata. The body is a conduit of faith."

"Before the Fall, demons had faith in their Creator and drew their power from Him."

She walks a sort of middle path as a mortal herself and leaning on awakened will more than angelic powers, drawing her power from direct devotion to The One but also her faith in humanity and the faith others have in her. This also heavily leans on the idea that chorister power is believed by some to be from True Faith instead of True Magick.

She is still a willworker, but this flavours her workings slightly. Her magick might resemble some low-torment lore abilities.

Ohh that is pretty cool.

The One is kind of interesting. They’re kind of an alternative and operate on the same level as the Abrahamic god (while possibly being that god too). Their whole thing is is that they were a single lonely demiurge who created everything else and everyone sung in one chorus before people started to sing their own discordant songs. They’ve kinda gone quiet now. People believe they will come back when everyone sings the same chorus again.

In a way I do sort of see Meridia as a weird kind of dreamspeaker. She doesn’t necessarily believe the finer details of every single faith, but she does believe that any manifestation of divinity is an aspect of The One and a way to reach them.

We tend to have Jehova as a Celestine. But yes the One is a interesting concept.

I would suggest that in this case, Meridia is not in 'communication' with any major spirit claiming to be God [though that would in fact be an interesting PC to play; a Chorister who's functionally a Dreamspeaker]. However, it is perhaps possible that they view some of the more 'honourable' spirits as perhaps angels or similar.

"That would be a interesting character though I believe a Chorister have to believe in something Divine, but spirits should be acceptable enough.

From my understanding of how things are in the default WoD setting, The One is seen as a very powerful Celestine who is kind of silent now. Most of the Elohim are also hiddden except for those who possibly(?) create the Imbued/Hunters.

It's common in the Celestial Chorus tend to rank all spirits as demonic or angelic, but I feel like this is kind of contradictory, maybe for lay Choristers who aren't as knowledgeable when it comes to cosmology and spirits. Probably people who had a particular strong faith before awakening.

I'm kind of torn when it comes to Meridia potentially invoking fallen angels. On one hand it feels like it should be a sort of fall from grace for herself, but on the other hand... A good number of demons are still the angels they once were, loving humanity and the world, just tormented by the shunning they received. I'm not sure if it will come up or not.

The way spirits work and angels work, there is a paradigm that would allow Meridia to work with them as usual. Elohim see reality as having multiple layers, and The One created many beings that would essentially
exist across and maintain those different layers of reality, mostly different houses of angels but possibly spirits and celestines like Gaia. Meridia dipping into the otherworlds and communicating with those different aspects could be just working across different layers of reality?


Honestly, I'm imagining most of Meridia's actual magick will be awakening/rousing spirits and working with ghosts rather than angels and stuff, but it's good to know where I stand on it.

Warpmind wrote:Question: what does Meridia see, in terms of auras?

It'll probably be significant for seeing Colin. And Serge.

I didn't see this!

So, as I see it, Meridia has always had some level of unawakened/sleepwalker aura reading just by virtue of her high Awareness. I'm guessing that part of her perception is very basic, common, mundane by the book stuff since it's not really filtering through her paradigm. She intuitively senses (not entirely a physical perception) a sort of corona of colours about things, people and places and can make some judgements based on this if she tunes in. Base awareness can show her some emotions, whether someone's aura is touched by the supernatural ie. quiet, corruption, faerie, ghosts, vampire, werewolf. She might be able to tell if a particular vampire is a diablerist or sense the imbued/hunters? She can probably feel the vibes that resonance gives out pretty clearly too.

Not sure what difficulties/successes would be required for this, but she can kind of see through some magickal trickery too.

This is pretty powerful so I'm guessing Anja will be the judge of what is fair or not.


Her awakened perceptions (life/spirit/prime) mostly revolve around how far or close they are to their platonic ideal or grace. This is a sort of healer's eye, showing her how something can be improved or restored. She's probably particularly trained slightly to sense residual corruption from the otherworld, the ridden and possessed.

I mean, Colin sees spirits - he can't not see spirits - and how powerful, or even directly beneficial that is is very... situational.

Just needed a rough idea about what Meridia's likely see on seeing Colin for the first time.

Warpmind wrote:I mean, Colin sees spirits - he can't not see spirits - and how powerful, or even directly beneficial that is is very... situational.

Just needed a rough idea about what Meridia's likely see on seeing Colin for the first time.

Oh, Colin is *not* going to enjoy Meridia's little orbiters. Once she gets back down to Boston, she's going to probably have a train of minor spirits.

Spirit Magnet: Minor entities surround you often, whether you want them to or not, and more potent ones have taken interest in your existence.

Meridia Porter wrote:Oh, Colin is *not* going to enjoy Meridia's little orbiters. Once she gets back down to Boston, she's going to probably have a train of minor spirits.

Spirit Magnet: Minor entities surround you often, whether you want them to or not, and more potent ones have taken interest in your existence.

I dunno, Colin's on pretty decent footing with most of the spirits he's chatted with. It's just that a few spirits don't like being noticed. Colin tries to maintain an understanding with those spirits, sort of a "we never saw one another" kind of agreement, but some are... disagreeable.

Eh, they're unlikely to actually follow her about much. Bit like the local foxes, they may tail me a bit hoping I may suddenly drop a burger/kebab but they won't then come into my house. But yeah, any situation will feature her being vaguely pestered by minor local spirits, even if it's merely at the 'yay, interesting thing!' level from Gafflings. Yet most Mages [and shapeshifters/fae] get this to some extent when in the Umbra anyway, as they are something 'new' which sticks out and even more importantly, carry a 'food bag' [Quint/Gnosis/Glamour] with them which they desire.

In this case, Meridia may need to study under a Dreamspeaker for a little bit to simply learn how to 'brush them off' without offending [unless she's done this already]. Esp as some of said spirits Meridia will quite clearly not like; ie ones of a technological nature [which may lead her to actively avoid the kinds of places they'd like to hang out].

As for auras... isn't that simply the same rules as VTM's Auspex?

Absolutely, they're mostly friendly/well-meaning spirits, but she's probably going to have to be a little diplomatic to avoid hurting their feelings when she needs to actually do serious spirit magick.


On aura reading it looks really similar but vampires in particular seem to really suck at aura reading, so I'm not sure? They also use Empathy for auspex aura readings instead of Awareness. Vampire awareness is also much weaker and less defined.

Werewolves (W20) just can not read auras *at all* as far as I can tell and awareness is straight up not a talent they can take?


It might be a difference between gamelines but Awareness 3 in a mage game seems to just make you a sleepwalker as an ordinary mortal and gives you aura reading. Auspex giving aura reading powers is from the first Vampire core rulebook but doesn't change even up to v20? Could be an oversight or it could be me reading something wrong.

There aren't any guidelines for rolling aura reading other than suggesting that it uses Perception + Awareness in either M20 or How Do You DO That, in either of the aura reading sections.

V20 has rules but they're for auspex and are pretty harsh and as noted, use empathy.

Meridia wrote:There aren't any guidelines for rolling aura reading other than suggesting that it uses Perception + Awareness in either M20 or How Do You DO That, in either of the aura reading sections.

To read an aura you simply need to access to Spirit or Mind 1 and cast a spell to see Aura (written in pg 509 of M20; Perception & Psychic Powers Table)

The colors these auras take can be seen on page 507 of M20 in the Magickal Reference Charts.

These colors follow V20s Auspux Aura rules very closely (a color for every emotion plus some additional information)

You are correct in that Aura reading is MUCH easier to mages then it is for vampires.

Eh, my read of it says that Auspex 2 is as strong as the Mind 1 'read emotions' Rote. However, it could be said the VtM is 'more expensive' as it requires a higher level of 'power' to work and uses Empathy, which isn't that common a Ability for vampires. However, I argue the latter one is a 'scrivener's error'; that V3rd had it using Empathy as Awareness wasn't present on their sheet, but V4th did get Awareness, but they didn't update the Auspex roll [I also think this error is seen elsewhere, which is why V4th Awareness seems kinda useless]. W4th surely has a Gift somewhere which emulates this, but that would have to use Empathy as W4th didn't get Awareness. But at least, shapeshifters are more likely to have dots in that Ability...

With spirits... I think one thing to remember is that minor spirits will generally be wary of Mages. They knew that Mages [like shapeshifters] have power to 'do nasty things' to them. So even if they inexplicably find Meridia interesting/cool/whatever they shouldn't be too 'buggy' towards her as they'd be worried of Meridia turning on them. At least, that is how I read it. Great One may see it a different way to me.

I think it might genuinely be a relatively big error or possibly intended discrepancy between different gamelines. A few things I've found out in my research as to how things work:

I cannot find any W20 Gifts or others that reference actual auras after a few scans through and some searches. Might have missed something.

Likewise, Changeling does not have Awareness and there is no mention of Aura reading (although a lot of mentions of unrelated auras) except for Aural Perception, which doesn't do what it says on the tin. There is a mention that wraiths can naturally read auras but I can't check this.

Awareness in V20 seems outright not available for mortals unless they have three dots in True Faith or some other excuse. It also doesn't mention anything about auras, just bad vibes.

In M20, Awareness is something that your average mortal can just have. If they get enough of it, they even stop counting as Sleepers without having to be embraced, imbued, awakened, etc. Awareness 2 just supposedly tells you "Magick exists" compared to Vampire's "You get funny feelings sometimes."

In M20 and How Do You DO That, Awareness alone is enough to aura read without any sphere usage. Awareness at 3+ dots, according to the talent, allows you to just perceive auras and understand what the colours mean. This is apparently something your average mortal can just do without access to something like Auspex.

Auras can be read with Mind, Spirit or Life+Prime. Prime alone also gives you resonance, but the description for Awareness implies you can just read resonance echoes just with the talent. Meridia would probably still use the spheres for awakened perceptions, but as far as I can tell, she wouldn't necessarily need to?


I'll obviously defer to whatever seems reasonable whenever I actually use it. I'm not sure if I should act as if it's always on or not.

Let us be fair, balance and mechanical overlapping between the different WoD systems is... not as smooth as it could have been. The power levels between vampires, werewolves, and mages are entirely incompatible.

Or to put it another way - a Garou, a Kindred, and a Mage are in an elevator. Who wins?
Well, that depends on whether the Mage is smiling or not.

Warpmind wrote:Let us be fair, balance and mechanical overlapping between the different WoD systems is... not as smooth as it could have been. The power levels between vampires, werewolves, and mages are entirely incompatible.

Or to put it another way - a Garou, a Kindred, and a Mage are in an elevator. Who wins?
Well, that depends on whether the Mage is smiling or not.

You're right, I just find it slightly funny that a Mortal who spends time around Vampires and has Awareness 5, who by necessity must also be a deeply holy figure, is utterly aurically deaf and just gets funny feelings, while an Awareness 5 Mortal who hangs around with Mages is all but a sage seer amongst men. If you're kinfolk, you're just screwed, though at least you can look at transformations without going insane!