Tristian Goodfellow, by the point where he's a nethermancer, is really a triple-dipped mage. Prior to being an adept, Tristian had four magical schticks: Countermagic (msotly Mage Static), Flesh (mostly healing), Spirits (loa), and Location (portals, mostly) I took a look back at his history--actually summoning up ghosts at boarding school, tattooing, and generally being a bastard with the Spirit and Flesh schticks. That was how his magic started, and it lead him to that bit he doesn't talk about, where he was part of a zombie cult in Spain, which ended...messily..when Legba appeared to him, recuiting him for the Good Fight against supernatural gribbles that hurt innocent people. Supernatural Gribbles really should just stick to beating up other supernatural gribbles, and leave the innocent poeple out of it. That's the first time the portal magic showed up. It's unclear when the countermagic surfaced, whether it was pre- or post-theophany. What is tristian descended from that he can knit flesh together with his hands? He's decended from the ture spirits of man...not those terrain spirits of man-made places, but actual spirits of the human body and soul. Spiritis of Mussle, Power and Movement; of Blood, Loyalty, and Violence; of Sex and Love; of Skin, Protection, and Sensuality; of Hair and Fate; of the Dead and Family. Most likely, his direct heritage would be Skin spirits (the tattooing and scarification that held his interest at a young age, his birth as an elf (the most sensious and beautiful race), his predeliction for protective magics, his mastery of formerly-human spirits and flesh and skin, and the way he houses spirits within his own body). it is this old stock of spirits that produces aztec blood spirits, ghosts, and possibly some thought-forms, if any of those are true spirits. It brings forth inbetweeners, those for whome spirit and flesh are the same, both and neither either. This is also, modified, the stock that produces manifestations of the loa. The loa, according to most records, and the ancient ancestors of humanity in some loosely defined way. Depending on the theology, they either are God's foremost generals and advisors, or those who protect humanity from God (sometimes both). They seem to have an odd correspondance to the passions (had some of this spelled out before, can do it again). Loa are reflections of the passions in the realm of fleshspirits. They elevate and sublimate the basic nature of skin, bone, hair, and flesh, replacing them with what could be better termed aspects of personality. They are loosely organized into Rada and Petro (i.e. "normal" and "mad"), and there are many lesser spirits caught in this framework who are not explicitly manifesting a loa-archetype (te-jean-petro, for example, was a historical personage, a powerful fleshspirit-born who interacts enough with the loa, and uses enough of their techniques over her basic blood and rage-magics, that she is part of voodoo lore. Countelss boogeymen and inbetweeners of voodoo are those who have not taken a loa-aspect upon themselves, but remain in more basic, natural form) This means the basic spirits types noted are fleshspirits (from whom bloodspirits, ghosts, and most voodoo spirits come), elementals (possibly including wu-jen, may need to check this), nature spirits (or terrain spirits), and invae. Am I missing any? There are probably spirits that violate this abstraction barrier--spirits, after all, are part of Feeling magic, not Named magic, and nature itself doesn't have abstraction barriers. Some spirits are tainted/toxic, and invae and fleshspirits have this tendency to require sacrifices on occasion. So Tristian's magic-- * Manifestation of the Dual Body--needed to be a decent mage * Call the Reverend Ancestor--summoning & loa, one of his four basic magic schticks * Jouney on the Sea of Wind--astral projection * Calm the Astral Torrent--was mage static, going with your revisions. Part of his "priestly" nature, partly from skin-spirit heritage * Donning Spiritual Armor (protection is a skin schtick) * Red Tide Fills the Inner Sea--fleshiness (with this and Touch of Grace, health levels and essence motes convert both ways...sort of an "inbetweener" feel) * Touch of Grace--mastery of flesh, his healing schtick. Material hands lay on the wound, spiritual fingers weave together...I can *so* stunt description of this as needed. * Affinity Element Control (gates & crossroads)--gift from his Parton, Legba. that's 2 charm slots free for when he became an adept. Picking up "tracking" as Legba has basically commissioned me to be a hunter, doesn't seem to much amiss.
Given the exitance of elementals and wui-jen, it makes me think that there are just two very different ways of going about summoning, and that each might be applicable to each--summon and bind a fleshpirit to make a zombie, as shadowrun voodoo mages could do using something like the hermetic summoning system, or summon and bind a guardian mountain spirit to a spirit-lodge in the mountains. That sort of thing seems like a pretty natural extension. Yeah, that makes sense. I need to look at Touch of Grace and Red Tide and make sure you aren't an Essence-spewing Machine. --bts