((The following is meant to be a sort of expanded bio that I can link people to, as well as a way of announcing myself to the roleplaying community. There are two (maybe three) characters involved here, based on interactions of Roman and Celtic Myths and cultures, both of whom will be showing up in one fashion or another soon on Virtue server. I hear tell that's the unofficial RP server, yeah? Right. Good.))
...
"Much has been made recently in our Order by the appearance of the so-called 'Lion of Caledonia' in America. I've made a detailed inquiry, and it appears that he is, in fact, of the same order of being that our predecessors encountered accompanying Tiberius' expedition. How this man has come to full expression of powers sealed for more than a millenium, and has broken the assorted taboos against leaving the land consecrated to him is quite beyond me... but his power does flow from Scotland. I'm certain of that much... the native energies of the American continent have shown no sign of accepting their European conquerers yet, and probably never will, and even the native mystics have never worked with this sort of very recognizable enchantment.
"Hmm... some explaination is in order, I see. A failing of mine, I apologise... I forget that my own research into the subject likely constitutes the bulk of the Order's knowledge of it. Well then... where to begin... ahem...
"When the Picts migrated here from the continent, they left their Old Gods behind... but found the Gods of their new home to be mad, alien beings. The Dread Fomorians were long since driven to the bottoms of the sea by the Tuatha de Danaan, and thanks be to them for that much... for of the old races of Faerie, the Fomorians were by far the cruelest and least like men in their dealings. The Tuatha yet remained, and were of a more glorious and noble aspect than their fallen state today... but they were still lofty and incomprehensible, and delighted in trickery. The Fir Bolg, likewise, were of a more terrible and noble countenance, but still lurked in the wild places and made war against any and all who were not of their tribe. Diverse races of spirits and beasts were found in every place one cared to look, and the land itself was strange and ever changing... for these are the days when the High King and Queen of Faerie still kept court on the Earth.
"Right. I ramble. Apologies. If more of you would read my book, you'd know all of this already... hrmm...
"The Picts feared that they would be destroyed lest they find some way to deal with the Host on its own terms. The cleverest of their Druids knew that the Shining Host drew its power from the Land itself. If the power of the Land could be subverted, they reasoned, they could weaken the Host and raise their own champion simultaneously. With cunning stoneworks and subtle geomancies, they redirected the Ley Lines and drained away the Wild Magics into carefully constructed places of power. With tattoos of woad shaped in the Runes of the Old Country, they consecrated the body of the cleverest and most courageous of their number, that they might be receptacles for a portion of that redirected power. There were several of these guardians made, and the land they drew power from curiously mirrored the regional cultural divisions that would later arise... almost as if by sectioning off the magic of the Land, they sectioned off the people who would live there. The first Lion was one of these... the focal point of the magics gleaned from what would become Scotland. His arts took the aspect of the Land they came from, and he strode the island like a God of Storms, striking low the marauding Faeries where he found them. It is peculiar, is it not, that the totem-beast of this Weather Warrior should become the emblem of Scotland's flag...
"Hmm... yes. Though they were weakened greatly by the subversion of the Land to Human will, the Host found ways to cope. They had often before sampled from the dreams and nightmares of their mortal neighbors, but now they were forced to feed exclusively from them. Some made themselves useful to the Humans, and earned their willing worship as Gods great and small. Most just took what they wanted, and cared little for the broken minds they left behind. The extremely limited Druidic record indicates that the first Lion fought for a time, then died... but at the time of his passing, his oldest son found the rune-mark tattoos growing on his skin and the Magics flowing into him. The other guardians tied to other portions of the isles passed their gifts on to their children likewise.
"For many generations, the Lions and their allies held the Host in stalemate. Though the Picts were conquered, and then their conquerers conquered, and so on... the bloodlines of the Guardians of the Isles carried on. The purest remnant of the Pictish line was always most concentrated in the northern quarter of the islands. When the men of that region tamed Iron, that baneful metal that is anathema to all magic, the Host went into hiding... and when the Christians came some time after our own arrival, with a new God to worship and Demons to fear more than the worst Bogies and Redcaps, the Host retreated entirely from the mortal world, starved for dreams and cut off from the land. It is then that the practise of the Tithe to Hell is thought to have begun, in which the Host swore fealty to the Devil in order to secure a new homeland... but let's not get off track there. If I get going about the intricacies of the Tithe, we'll be all night, eh lads? Heh. Getting all out of order anyway... backtrack two hundred years or so. Right.
"Though, as noted, the Christians would eventually chase the Host away for good, Iron had already driven them to hiding. The guardians of the isles, lacking any outside force to battle, they fought amongst each other as did the tribes in their territories. It was thus that, weakened by internal struggle, they were unable to resist the Romans. The guardians, and the Druidic order that had created them, and indeed the Celts themselves, were powerful but extremely fractuous. The Legions, however, were quite the opposite... and those sages of the Mercurian Mysteries who went with them were far more advanced in abstract metamagical theory than their adversaries. The Druids were accustomed to working against Faerie magic, an unpredictable and largely intuitive passtime. The Mercurians, sorcerous arm of the Empire, were skilled in fighting other human Wizards. The results... well... I do hope you all know that much of history.
"Where was I... right. Though the Romans conquered much of the rest of the isles, they never completely subjugated the last remnants of the Picts (or the Hibernians, over in Eire, for that matter). It took everything the Lion of the time had to stop their advance into his territory though... and even then, his Mercurian opponents were able to seal away his magics, even as he put up the last barriers that still make the Highlands a dangerous place for our arts. Most of the other heirs were likewise sealed, although only in Hibernia was there any similar counterstroke beforehand. In Britannia, much as the Druids had done before them, the Romans subverted the will of the Land in their service... not through blood rituals and the erection of obelisks, but through treaties, maps, taxes and legislature. Even after Rome fell, Britannia never forgot the feeling of being part of an Empire. It liked the notion so much, in fact, that it went and founded its own... ah... I'm drifting into a tangent again, so sorry.
"So. We know the disposition of the four current heirs attached to the components of subjugated Britannia, all living quite ordinary lives... funny thing, three of the four live within a few kilometers of one another here in London. The fourth is a librarian in Manchester, and actually an Acolyte of our Order, although his seal seems to make him ineligible for further initiation. A pity. The bloodline tied to the Isle of Mann, so far as I can tell, was completely severed... which may account for the peculiar resurgence of wild magics there, without a vessel to capture them. The guardian of Cymru was never bound, and his heirs have been active... but strangely insular. I'm not sure how the Old Mercurians overlooked them... there's always been a more peculiar magic there than elsewhere... worth investigating... erm... right. Another time. The original guardian tied, not to the islands, but to the sea around them has apparently achieved some measure of supernatural longevity, and still persists in the blossom of youth... but she devotes her attentions entirely to the banished Fomorians, and I say God Bless her in her every effort to keep those awful monstrosities caged. And then, the heirs of Caledonia and Hibernia. We seem to have lost track of them during the 18th century. The Hibernian heir... your guess is as good as mine. That island is absolutely rotten with wild magic, and it's quite impossible to track down a specific strain.
"Our modern Lion of Caledonia is several generations removed from immigrants to the United States, living in Paragon City. Hmm? What's that... speak up? Oh. Right. Nathan McNabb. Twenty-three years old, I believe... a graduate student at Paragon University... Art History, or something... wants to be a Professor or work in a museum or something. Poor lad... seems a nice quiet profession like that isn't going to be likely. As I said, it's as peculiar that he can access his power outside of Scotland, much less on a different continent, as it is that he can access it at all. The seal is still whole... he just seems to have, I don't know, sidestepped it somehow. What? No... I'm not sure how. I've got a few theories... there're some very interesting artifacts in that University that his studies would have brought him in contact with... but, eh, nothing solid yet. Give me time. He's still very new, but he's followed the fashion of his environment and become a Costumed Hero... hah, right! With a mask and all bloody tights and everything! Lucky thing the lad's in good shape. Still, he's quite good at it, I hear. He's aware of the Order... I've met with the lad, and explained somewhat of our role in taking over for most of the guardians in holding back the Host here in the United Kingdom... but he's unaware of our animosity with past Lions.
"Frankly, I recommend that we fully disclose our history to him. What? No, I'm not drunk... hmmph. Our young Guardian is clever, insightful, brave... and honest to a fault. The sort to quickly forgive a stark admission of guilt, but also to hold a grudge forever if he catches us in a lie. His power is still in its infancy, but if the heirs of Cymru and the Sea are any indication, he'll become a force to be reckoned with before long. I prefer not to play games with people like him. The Order already has enough enemies, thank you very much. The re-emergence of the Host in Paragon City and the so-called Rogue Isles troubles me much more than the unexpected appearance of this New Lion... and he's much better suited to dealing with them than we've ever been. If, Heaven forbid, the enchantments are weakening and the sealed heirs are all going to start becoming active, I'd prefer to have amicable relations with as many of them as possible... especially if they're all going to be able to move about internationally now.
"Well, yes, think it over. That's what you're here for. I'm off to Paragon, though. Got to keep an eye on our young Lion. Hah... right. I'll be playing Merlin to his Arthur, I suppose. That... and I've got a sneaking suspicion that if I hunt around the resurgent Fair Folk, I'll find our errant Rose of Hibernia... and that one, that one we can not afford to leave unsupervised. Not after Ulster. Right. I thought you'd agree."
- Magister Scholae Melchior Gallows, Scion of the House and Line of Caradoc the Mad, Primus of the Black Sheep Cabal, and Wizard of the New Mercurian Order. Taken from the transcript of the annual Order-wide Tribunal, held in London in October of 2006.
@Eisenzahn
GW2 - Melchior.2135
AIM - Euroclydon23
Email - scorpany@yahoo.com or <sameasmyAIM>@aol.com (for the sheer novelty of an almost 20 year old email address that hasn't been overwhelmed by spambots yet)
((The following is meant to be a sort of expanded bio that I can link people to, as well as a way of announcing myself to the roleplaying community. There are two (maybe three) characters involved here, based on interactions of Roman and Celtic Myths and cultures, both of whom will be showing up in one fashion or another soon on Virtue server. I hear tell that's the unofficial RP server, yeah? Right. Good.))
...
"Much has been made recently in our Order by the appearance of the so-called 'Lion of Caledonia' in America. I've made a detailed inquiry, and it appears that he is, in fact, of the same order of being that our predecessors encountered accompanying Tiberius' expedition. How this man has come to full expression of powers sealed for more than a millenium, and has broken the assorted taboos against leaving the land consecrated to him is quite beyond me... but his power does flow from Scotland. I'm certain of that much... the native energies of the American continent have shown no sign of accepting their European conquerers yet, and probably never will, and even the native mystics have never worked with this sort of very recognizable enchantment.
"Hmm... some explaination is in order, I see. A failing of mine, I apologise... I forget that my own research into the subject likely constitutes the bulk of the Order's knowledge of it. Well then... where to begin... ahem...
"When the Picts migrated here from the continent, they left their Old Gods behind... but found the Gods of their new home to be mad, alien beings. The Dread Fomorians were long since driven to the bottoms of the sea by the Tuatha de Danaan, and thanks be to them for that much... for of the old races of Faerie, the Fomorians were by far the cruelest and least like men in their dealings. The Tuatha yet remained, and were of a more glorious and noble aspect than their fallen state today... but they were still lofty and incomprehensible, and delighted in trickery. The Fir Bolg, likewise, were of a more terrible and noble countenance, but still lurked in the wild places and made war against any and all who were not of their tribe. Diverse races of spirits and beasts were found in every place one cared to look, and the land itself was strange and ever changing... for these are the days when the High King and Queen of Faerie still kept court on the Earth.
"Right. I ramble. Apologies. If more of you would read my book, you'd know all of this already... hrmm...
"The Picts feared that they would be destroyed lest they find some way to deal with the Host on its own terms. The cleverest of their Druids knew that the Shining Host drew its power from the Land itself. If the power of the Land could be subverted, they reasoned, they could weaken the Host and raise their own champion simultaneously. With cunning stoneworks and subtle geomancies, they redirected the Ley Lines and drained away the Wild Magics into carefully constructed places of power. With tattoos of woad shaped in the Runes of the Old Country, they consecrated the body of the cleverest and most courageous of their number, that they might be receptacles for a portion of that redirected power. There were several of these guardians made, and the land they drew power from curiously mirrored the regional cultural divisions that would later arise... almost as if by sectioning off the magic of the Land, they sectioned off the people who would live there. The first Lion was one of these... the focal point of the magics gleaned from what would become Scotland. His arts took the aspect of the Land they came from, and he strode the island like a God of Storms, striking low the marauding Faeries where he found them. It is peculiar, is it not, that the totem-beast of this Weather Warrior should become the emblem of Scotland's flag...
"Hmm... yes. Though they were weakened greatly by the subversion of the Land to Human will, the Host found ways to cope. They had often before sampled from the dreams and nightmares of their mortal neighbors, but now they were forced to feed exclusively from them. Some made themselves useful to the Humans, and earned their willing worship as Gods great and small. Most just took what they wanted, and cared little for the broken minds they left behind. The extremely limited Druidic record indicates that the first Lion fought for a time, then died... but at the time of his passing, his oldest son found the rune-mark tattoos growing on his skin and the Magics flowing into him. The other guardians tied to other portions of the isles passed their gifts on to their children likewise.
"For many generations, the Lions and their allies held the Host in stalemate. Though the Picts were conquered, and then their conquerers conquered, and so on... the bloodlines of the Guardians of the Isles carried on. The purest remnant of the Pictish line was always most concentrated in the northern quarter of the islands. When the men of that region tamed Iron, that baneful metal that is anathema to all magic, the Host went into hiding... and when the Christians came some time after our own arrival, with a new God to worship and Demons to fear more than the worst Bogies and Redcaps, the Host retreated entirely from the mortal world, starved for dreams and cut off from the land. It is then that the practise of the Tithe to Hell is thought to have begun, in which the Host swore fealty to the Devil in order to secure a new homeland... but let's not get off track there. If I get going about the intricacies of the Tithe, we'll be all night, eh lads? Heh. Getting all out of order anyway... backtrack two hundred years or so. Right.
"Though, as noted, the Christians would eventually chase the Host away for good, Iron had already driven them to hiding. The guardians of the isles, lacking any outside force to battle, they fought amongst each other as did the tribes in their territories. It was thus that, weakened by internal struggle, they were unable to resist the Romans. The guardians, and the Druidic order that had created them, and indeed the Celts themselves, were powerful but extremely fractuous. The Legions, however, were quite the opposite... and those sages of the Mercurian Mysteries who went with them were far more advanced in abstract metamagical theory than their adversaries. The Druids were accustomed to working against Faerie magic, an unpredictable and largely intuitive passtime. The Mercurians, sorcerous arm of the Empire, were skilled in fighting other human Wizards. The results... well... I do hope you all know that much of history.
"Where was I... right. Though the Romans conquered much of the rest of the isles, they never completely subjugated the last remnants of the Picts (or the Hibernians, over in Eire, for that matter). It took everything the Lion of the time had to stop their advance into his territory though... and even then, his Mercurian opponents were able to seal away his magics, even as he put up the last barriers that still make the Highlands a dangerous place for our arts. Most of the other heirs were likewise sealed, although only in Hibernia was there any similar counterstroke beforehand. In Britannia, much as the Druids had done before them, the Romans subverted the will of the Land in their service... not through blood rituals and the erection of obelisks, but through treaties, maps, taxes and legislature. Even after Rome fell, Britannia never forgot the feeling of being part of an Empire. It liked the notion so much, in fact, that it went and founded its own... ah... I'm drifting into a tangent again, so sorry.
"So. We know the disposition of the four current heirs attached to the components of subjugated Britannia, all living quite ordinary lives... funny thing, three of the four live within a few kilometers of one another here in London. The fourth is a librarian in Manchester, and actually an Acolyte of our Order, although his seal seems to make him ineligible for further initiation. A pity. The bloodline tied to the Isle of Mann, so far as I can tell, was completely severed... which may account for the peculiar resurgence of wild magics there, without a vessel to capture them. The guardian of Cymru was never bound, and his heirs have been active... but strangely insular. I'm not sure how the Old Mercurians overlooked them... there's always been a more peculiar magic there than elsewhere... worth investigating... erm... right. Another time. The original guardian tied, not to the islands, but to the sea around them has apparently achieved some measure of supernatural longevity, and still persists in the blossom of youth... but she devotes her attentions entirely to the banished Fomorians, and I say God Bless her in her every effort to keep those awful monstrosities caged. And then, the heirs of Caledonia and Hibernia. We seem to have lost track of them during the 18th century. The Hibernian heir... your guess is as good as mine. That island is absolutely rotten with wild magic, and it's quite impossible to track down a specific strain.
"Our modern Lion of Caledonia is several generations removed from immigrants to the United States, living in Paragon City. Hmm? What's that... speak up? Oh. Right. Nathan McNabb. Twenty-three years old, I believe... a graduate student at Paragon University... Art History, or something... wants to be a Professor or work in a museum or something. Poor lad... seems a nice quiet profession like that isn't going to be likely. As I said, it's as peculiar that he can access his power outside of Scotland, much less on a different continent, as it is that he can access it at all. The seal is still whole... he just seems to have, I don't know, sidestepped it somehow. What? No... I'm not sure how. I've got a few theories... there're some very interesting artifacts in that University that his studies would have brought him in contact with... but, eh, nothing solid yet. Give me time. He's still very new, but he's followed the fashion of his environment and become a Costumed Hero... hah, right! With a mask and all bloody tights and everything! Lucky thing the lad's in good shape. Still, he's quite good at it, I hear. He's aware of the Order... I've met with the lad, and explained somewhat of our role in taking over for most of the guardians in holding back the Host here in the United Kingdom... but he's unaware of our animosity with past Lions.
"Frankly, I recommend that we fully disclose our history to him. What? No, I'm not drunk... hmmph. Our young Guardian is clever, insightful, brave... and honest to a fault. The sort to quickly forgive a stark admission of guilt, but also to hold a grudge forever if he catches us in a lie. His power is still in its infancy, but if the heirs of Cymru and the Sea are any indication, he'll become a force to be reckoned with before long. I prefer not to play games with people like him. The Order already has enough enemies, thank you very much. The re-emergence of the Host in Paragon City and the so-called Rogue Isles troubles me much more than the unexpected appearance of this New Lion... and he's much better suited to dealing with them than we've ever been. If, Heaven forbid, the enchantments are weakening and the sealed heirs are all going to start becoming active, I'd prefer to have amicable relations with as many of them as possible... especially if they're all going to be able to move about internationally now.
"Well, yes, think it over. That's what you're here for. I'm off to Paragon, though. Got to keep an eye on our young Lion. Hah... right. I'll be playing Merlin to his Arthur, I suppose. That... and I've got a sneaking suspicion that if I hunt around the resurgent Fair Folk, I'll find our errant Rose of Hibernia... and that one, that one we can not afford to leave unsupervised. Not after Ulster. Right. I thought you'd agree."
- Magister Scholae Melchior Gallows, Scion of the House and Line of Caradoc the Mad, Primus of the Black Sheep Cabal, and Wizard of the New Mercurian Order. Taken from the transcript of the annual Order-wide Tribunal, held in London in October of 2006.
@Eisenzahn
GW2 - Melchior.2135
AIM - Euroclydon23
Email - scorpany@yahoo.com or <sameasmyAIM>@aol.com (for the sheer novelty of an almost 20 year old email address that hasn't been overwhelmed by spambots yet)