Merits & Flaws

You belong to a Chantry (or Construct, or whatever) that has a longstanding animosity with another such organization. This could be a rival Hermetic Chantry, a temple whose members consider you to be heretics, a hostile street gang, an opposing martial arts order, a coven that has declared a witch-war against your group, a Construct that has marked you all for death, and so on. This antagonism is mutual, too, and you’re expected to act accordingly. Mediation remains unlikely, and things could get worse before they get better… if improved relations are even possible.

Obviously, such hostility is personal, with deep roots in the backstory of your chronicle and its characters. Groups of mages don’t generally pursue mass grudges without serious reasons to do so! The Flaw’s value depends upon the power of that other stronghold and the level to which they hate members of your own.

• (1 point) A minor rivalry with an associated Chantry of equal or lesser power in relation to your own. For the most part, the antagonism involves pranks, competition, minor sabotage, and occasional “friendly” brawls.

• (2 points) A significant rivalry (serious fights and slanders, major sabotage) with a Chantry of similar power, or a minor rivalry with a Chantry so powerful they don’t consider yours to be a true threat.

• (3 points) Deadly antagonism between roughly equal Chantries.

• (4 points) A significant rivalry between your Chantry and one that’s powerful enough to inflict serious damage upon your own.

• (5 points) Deadly hatred from a Chantry that could level yours if they really wanted to… and they probably do.

From the three-point version onward, it’s pretty unlikely that the rivalry can be resolved without a shared enemy or some significant interference from an even more powerful third party. It might not be resolvable even then. This Flaw requires the Background: Chantry /Construct, but any character with such associations can take it – the Flaw is not restricted to mages from the Traditions and Technocracy. Your rivalry might cross factions, too; a Hermetic House might hold a longstanding enmity with a Progenitor lab. It can also exist within a single group (two rival Etherite collectives), or between two related groups that do not belong to the same faction; alchemist sects, for example, have been arguing over the name Solificati for centuries, with no end in sight!