Everything

“We are family” has a whole other meaning when you apply it to familiars: the materialized spirits embodied in semi- permanent bio-bodies and teamed up with the mages who help them sustain their material forms. The name applied to them by mystic traditionalists evokes their kindred status, and any mage with a lick of sense regards their familiar as a respected and usually beloved (if often prickly) member of their family. Although familiars are, in game terms, constructed as physical characters, they have a few of the Traits normally reserved for ephemeral spirit characters. Even so, they bleed like living things, behave as though they’re native to mate rial reality, and have the solidity of any biological organism despite their Otherworldly origins.

Also referred to as companions, these unusual entities can bond with an Awakened person from any group, or from no group at all. Technocrats, of course, do not regard such companions as metaphysical entities — such thoughts are nonsense, naturally, and might provide evidence for accu sations of Reality Deviance. Their “familiars” don’t regard themselves with any sort of mystical hogwash either; their uplifted nature is a manifestation of Enlightened science, nothing more. In game terms, of course, there’s no real difference between the two aside from (as with Tiberius, below) a lack of Charm Traits… a lack more rooted in the companion’s perception of himself than of any system- or setting-based differences between mystic and hypertech familiars.

For details about familiar-type characters, see the Background entry of that name (Mage 20, pp. 314-316), and this book’s Chapter Five.

Daqqanoenyent, Uncle Whirlwind

Uncle screams into the night, terrorizing the enemies of his nieces and nephews: “Fall and become bones! Scatter to the wind! Bones become birds!”

Uncle spent his whole life pursuing great power, and when his relatives come calling he answers with wisdom and great magic. His kin, and the accumulation of might, are his greatest concerns, and at times it’s unclear which one holds greater priority. At one point, Uncle Whirlwind explains, he too was a great sorcerer — perhaps the greatest sorcerer of all time. He was instructed by the great people of the sky, and the humble people who live beneath the earth. He soaked in the wisdom of his ancestors and dreamt of the generations that would come after his death. He went into the woods and lost himself in his study. He lost his body as

well. Uncle died and was reborn. For many years, he rolled around on the ground, but eventually he grew tired of it, and learned the secrets of flight from the eagle people above, and from the great wisdom of his children’s children, who learned to fly with a different kind of magic.

Magnificent wings — sometimes resembling those of a bat, but usually a bird of some colorful variety — grow out the sides of this floating skull’s head. Daqqanoenyent’s eyes are alight with the phosphorous glow of secret forest fungi, and his laugh ter peals through the trees as he floats around, following his sister’s children’s children. He eagerly agrees to come to the aid of his sister’s descendants, particularly when they are plagued by the powers of a witch greater than themselves — because no witch is greater than Uncle Whirlwind, and he will prove it gladly. Uncle keeps the faith with his charges; if asked, he might even hunt down their enemies and howl terrible spells of death and destruction down upon them. He transforms the living into piles of bones and, as his namesake, whirls through the piles and scatters them to the corners of the earth. When the bones are scattered, he teaches his nieces and nephews the secret words of transformation. They, in turn, utter the spells that turn the bones into birds so that no one can ever bring them together again and resurrect the evil sorcerers who have plagued his family.

Sometimes, instead of protecting his line, he chooses to go out into the world and seek more magick so as to become even more powerful. After all, he says, what’s the use of being one of the greatest wizards in the history of all time if you let today’s children think they have a chance of catching up with you? They don’t. What’s important, of course, is that they don’t think they do.

Daqqanoenyent loves stories, but most importantly he loves stories about himself and how powerful and terrifying he is. He loves stories of the many enemies he has vanquished over the centuries. Compared to him, his descendants are merely apprentices… though apprentices worthy of his in struction. Daqqanoenyent prefers that the mage he forms a bond with call him “Uncle.” He rarely bonds with anyone who’s not a distant relative of his in some way. If he is not treated with the respect due one’s mother’s brother, the Whirlwind quickly departs and finds another sorcerer worthy of his time, instruction, and protection.

Game-wise, Uncle Whirlwind is a five-dot Familiar with a decidedly ambivalent relationship to his hosts. He’s not actually as great a sorcerer as he imagines he is (at least not in his current form), but his abilities are impressive nonetheless. His high ratings in Enigmas, Esoterica, and Occult reflect a wide variety of Indigenous American practices combined with a lot of things he knows or thinks he knows about other forms of magick. For a flying skull, he’s amazingly resilient; if Daqqanoenyent faces a serious threat, however, he’ll escape into the Penumbra or teleport elsewhere before he risks facing as ignominious a fate as mortal defeat.

In addition to the obvious Flaws like No Limbs, Thaumivore, and Unbelief (8 pts — at home only in the wild spaces of North America), Uncle Whirlwind has both the Merit and the Flaw side of Family Support/Issues, the Merit My Master is My Slave, and the 5-pt version of the Flaw Alien Impression. Being a flying skull, he has no physical Strength Trait, though his telekinesis helps alleviate that handicap somewhat. He can assume a human form, but generally chooses not to. After all, as one of the greatest sorcerers ever, Daqqanoenyent appears as he wishes to appear, not in a form designed to please and comfort mere people.

Attributes: Strength 0,

Dexterity 4, Stamina 5,

Charisma 4, Manipulation 4,

Appearance 0, Perception 4, Intelligence 5, Wits 4 Abilities: Alertness 3, Enigmas 5, Esoterica 5, Cosmology 3, Medicine 2, Occult 5, Willpower: 10 Health Levels: OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, ‒5, Incapacitated Armor Rating: 3 (eight soak dice, total) Powers: Daqqanoenyent attacks and defends using his wide array of Advantages and Charms: Special Advantages: Armor (3 pts.); Bond-Sharing; Cause Insanity (10 pts. / five dice); Elemental Touch (15 pts.); Homing Instinct (4 pts.); Human Speech; Information Fount; Intangibility; Mystic Shield (10 pts); Nightsight; Paradox Nullification (3 pts.); Read and Write; Shapechanger (8 pts.); Soak Aggravated Damage; Soul-Sense/Death-Sense; Spirit Vision; Spirit Travel (15 pts.); Telepathy (6 pts.); Telekinesis; Tides of Fortune; Universal Translator; Wings (3 pts.) Charms: Airt Sense, Blast, Call for Aid (Indigenous American spirits), Disable, Dream Journey, Ease Pain, Illuminate, Influence, Insight, Healing, Peek, Reform, Swift Flight, Terror Rage: 5 Gnosis: 5 Essence: 30 Image: As described above, Uncle Whirlwind assumes the form of a winged, flying skull with eyes that glow a pale green, blue, or occasionally red. Those who know Daqqanoenyent understand that while red is the most frightening hue, pale blue verging into white is the most dangerous color of all. At times, he becomes a laughing tornado, a large bat, or a Native American man of kindly aspect and apparent age but uncanny speed and an unnerving tone of voice. Roleplaying Notes: Laugh often at the travails of your chil dren, and rarely take danger seriously. Even if your nieces and nephews die, you have many more. Call out curses loudly upon your enemies. Shriek and wail hauntingly at night, and in the trees. Remind others (often) that they are very small and meaningless compared to you, but remain unquestionably loyal to your blood, and give the benefit of the doubt to those who are willing to treat you with respect. Aside from giving aid to your relations, however, your only goal in this world involves all the power you can seize.

Lullabye

Everyone loves spiders, right? Especially great big blue tarantulas with wings? Okay, maybe not. But Spider Chase does, and true to her name she called up a familiar of the aforementioned description. She loves the flying furry beastie, and anyone who doesn’t is hereby invited to piss up a rope as far as Spider is concerned.

Lullabye is not exactly the greatest conversationalist, but Spider’s not big on chatty companions under most circumstances. A lovely example of Cyriopagopus lividus with especially vivid blue legs, cephalothorax, and opisthosoma, Lullabye has the mating hooks of a male tarantula but the size and coloration of a female one. Actually, Lullabye’s quite a bit larger than a normal cobalt tarantula — a bit more than six inches across, if you get close enough to measure the little furball. Very few people do, and Spider Chase likes it that way.

Overall, Lullabye seems content to catch bugs, fly around, suckle Quintessence off a specially designed glyph tattoo that Spider has on her right bicep, and scare the living crap out of the occasional asshole. He knows enough about the modern world to keep his wings tucked up in an apparent caprice on his back, and very few people look close enough or long enough at Lullabye to get a clear view of those wings. When he’s not hanging out in his terrarium or flying around Spider’s house, he tends to nestle up inside her jacket or sometimes ride around on her shoulder. Most of Spider’s friends think he’s awesome. Everyone else just screams and runs away. Spider likes it that way, too.

Rules-wise, Lullabye is a three-dot Familiar whose spe cial abilities allow him to fly around, help soothe Spider’s chronic pain issues, and occasionally visit people (not just Spider) in their dreams. He doesn’t talk, but conveys in formation and holds limited conversations with Spider by spinning words into webs only she can read. (Cyriopagopus lividus is not usually a web-building spider, but Lullabye is an exception.) His Disable Charm takes the form of biting people or spitting venom at them, and though he can shoot webs at other characters he generally prefers not to. He’s fast, obviously, and rather fragile if you get past his carapace. Spider is ferociously protective of Lullabye, and with good reason! As familiars go, he’s rather breakable.

Lullabye’s Flaws include Alien Feature (4 pts.); Animal; Ungainly Fingers (legs, actually — and yes, he can type, just not well); and, of course, Thaumivore. Although weirdly frightening, Lullabye isn’t uncanny enough to suffer from Unbelief; even if Spider was crazy enough to take him to a Technocratic stronghold, folks there would probably just consider him to be some Progenitor’s experiment. As things are, he rarely leaves Spider’s ward-guarded Sanctum, and almost never leaves her side if he does. It’s a big world, especially by arachnid standards, and Lullabye doesn’t plan to become a hairy blue smear on anybody’s floor.

Attributes: Strength 1, Dexterity 4, Stamina 1, Charisma 1, Manipulation 3, Appearance 2, Perception 2, Intelligence 2, Wits 3 Abilities: Alertness 3, Athletics 2, Brawl 2, Enigmas 4, Esoterica 3 (Hypnosis, Omens, Sacred Geometry, Symbolism), Cosmology 3, Medicine 2, Occult 4, Stealth 4 Willpower: 3 Health Levels: OK, ‒1, ‒1 ‒2, ‒2, ‒5, Incapacitated Armor Rating: 3 (four soak dice, total) Powers: If Lullabye bites someone, he inflicts one health level of lethal damage; if that target cannot soak that damage, the spider also injects a venom of Toxin Rating Three, Lethal (detailed in Mage 20, p. 442). Alternately, he can choose to simply paralyze the target with his Disable Charm, which lasts for one turn per Essence point spent. Special Advantages: Armor (3 pts.); Blending; Bond- Sharing (with Spider); Paradox Nullification (3 pts.); Webbing; Wings (3 pts.), Charms: Airt Sense, Cling, Disable, Dream Journey, Ease Pain, Healing Rage: 3 Gnosis: 3 Essence: 15 Image: An especially large, blue, pretty, cobalt-blue ta rantula with wings. Said wings resemble foldable iridescent dragonfly wings, which really shouldn’t be able to support Lullabye’s weight but do so anyway. Roleplaying Notes: Eat, fly, heal, dream. When all else fails, run away and hide. If that doesn’t work, scare the shit out of someone. It’s funny to watch them scream.

Tiberius

Although named for “the gloomiest of men,” Tiberius is pretty friendly for a Technocratic agent. And make no mistake — an agent is what he is. Oh, they don’t call this sleek murder-machine an “agent” on the rosters; anyone who’s met Tiberius, though, knows that this uplifted Doberman-Great- Dane hybrid is as smart as any field agent and smarter than most people. He doesn’t talk or use “charms” of any kind — that would be Reality Deviance, and Tiberius is as loyal a Technocrat as one could ever hope to meet… or, depending on who you are, hope not to meet. He is, however, a tribute to fine training, Progenitor biotech, and the miracles of Primum reinforcement. The Union has been growing canine companions in vats for decades. Tiberius is hardly unique. Still, he’s smarter than the average Union pooch, and processes his intellect in an often-startling mix of canine perspective and human discernment. He’s not exactly working around the lab — that’s not sort of duty a field agent does. When it comes

to threat assessment, strategy, tactical discernment, and an uncanny awareness about the deeper levels of human and near-human body language, Tiberius is a master of his field.

Raised and trained to maintain order in a chaotic world, Tiberius has seen enough to make his loyalties clear. Like any good Technocrat, he serves the cause of higher evolution for Earth’s deeply flawed species, and he stands as proof of what such order can achieve. Yes, he’s a dog, but a sterling example of the best aspects of canine and human potential. Brave, loyal, honorable, disarmingly polite, and unexpect edly compassionate (by Technocratic attack-dog standards, anyway), Tiberius is a model citizen of futuristic supremacy.

Though tough enough to face a full-fledged werewolf in combat (and win), Tiberius prefers to tailor his response to an appropriate level of force. Negotiation is an option, and while he cannot speak human words, his command of nonverbal communication is eloquent enough to cross most lines of species, culture, and linguistics. His perceptions, enhanced well beyond the normal capacities of man and dog, and skills allow him to assess potential hazards and then circumvent them before many targets even realize he is there. His human teammates regard Tiberius as an equal, and they’re well-advised to do so. The few agents who were shortsighted enough to regard this agent as a mere hound were quickly and firmly appraised of their error.

These days, Tiberius works alongside an es teemed field agent whose covert allegiance to the Friends of Courage is shared by Tiberius him self. Yes, “the Emperor,” as he is colloquially known among the ranks, has discerned a troubling degree of corruption among the Union’s ranks. Though he is in no way a friend to Reality Deviants — Tiberius himself bears the mental and physical scars of their brand of chaos — Tiberius has begun his own in vestigations into the rot infecting his beloved Technocracy. When he finds the agents of its perpetration, his Primum teeth, dizzy ing speed, terrifying strength, and tactical acumen send such Deviants straight to the oblivion they so earnestly crave.

System-wise, Tiberius is a five-dot Companion (in the Technocratic Familiar sense of that word) whose lack of “magical” power is offset by prodigious physical and men tal ability. He communicates through telepathy and body language, and he understands, and can mind-speak in, over a dozen human languages. His Academics Trait reflects an extensive knowledge of tactics, history, and social protocols rather than academic schooling in a human sense. While he’s not a cyborg per se, his bones have been enhanced with Primum countermeasures. He’s got the Animal and No Dexterous Limbs Flaws, though his telekinetic abilities allow the Emperor to work a bit around the latter. Because he appears to be a perfectly ordinary (if huge) black dog, and lacks overt cybernetic Enhancements, he incurs no Paradox and does not suffer from Unbelief. That said, he does require a diet of specially formulated food, plus a regimen of medical treatments, in order to sustain himself for long. Although no good Technocrat would use the word “Thaumivore” to describe his needs, that is, in game terms, what Tiberius is. He also neutralizes the Paradox Effect in the usual way familiars do, though it’s not through conscious metaphysical effort on his part. The Emperor simply figures he’s “taking one for the team” the way any good agent would do.

Attributes: Strength 5, Dexterity 5, Stamina 6, Charisma 3, Manipulation 3, Appearance 2, Perception 5, Intelligence 4, Wits 4

Abilities: Academics 3, Alertness 4, Athletics 4,

Awareness 4, Brawl 4, Empathy 4, Etiquette 1,

Intimidation 4, Investigation 3, Law 1, Medicine

1, Stealth 4, Subterfuge 3, Survival (Tracking) 5 Willpower: 4

Health Levels: OK, OK, OK, ‒1, ‒1, ‒2,

‒ 2, ‒5, Incapacitated

Armor Rating: 3 (nine soak dice, total)

Powers: Bite for Strength + 3 lethal

damage; claw for Strength + 1 bashing

damage.

Special Advantages:

Claws and Fangs; Healing

Lick (6 pts.); Homing Instinct; Soak Aggravated Damage; Paradox Nullification (5 pts.); Telepathy; Telekinesis. Beyond all that, Tiberius also boasts four dice of Primum countermeasures. Charms: “Charms,” citizen? Why would you inquire into such superstitious rubbish? Rage: 4

Gnosis: 4 Essence: 20 Image: A HUGE black dog, Tiberius stands almost four feet high at the shoulder, with a massive chest, a thick neck, and the traditionally clipped ears of an attack-trained Doberman. The Emperor has deeply intelligent brown eyes, and his tele pathic voice is deep and resonant. He wears a collar equipped with scrambled-frequency radio, a tracking device, and hypertech cloaking technology. System- wise, this is a Correspondence 2 / Forces 2 wave-deflector Device (Enlightenment 4) that gives Tiberius invisibility and silence while allowing him to sense his surrounding area; for

details, see How Do You DO That? (p. 34). The Device has also been rigged to give Tiberius a disabling stun-shock specially tailored to his physiology, but his handlers and companions have never needed to use it on him… yet. Roleplaying Notes: You are not only what dogs and men could aspire to be, but what they all should be. Your life proves it’s possible to be so much more than what most people (of any species) believe they’re capable of becoming. Order under technological progress, to you, is essential for the survival of this deteriorating world. You have firsthand knowledge of the horrors just beyond the average person’s sight, and your experiences nurture a white-hot rage that sometimes under mines your monk-like sense of purposeful calm.