An inheritor of the blood of King Minos and Circe – ancestors of traditions which had initially rejected Bonisagus’ overtures – Magus Anechkavanya is considered suspicious by many outside Ex Miscellanea and thought a Hedge Wizard. Despite this she is confident and proud of her abilities as well as heritage and is driven to eclipse this reputation through her activities within the Levant Tribunal and the many opportunities such a turbulent area of the Order of Hermes presents.
Apprenticed
Anya of Ex Miscellanea apprenticed Anechkavanya, then known as Tsdrig, at the age of 10 after identifying the youngster’s potential at age five through meticulous research into her lineage. Tsdrig’s birth parents were more than willing to give their young but unnerving daughter to this apparently pleasant and well meaning scholar. Tsdrig was taken to her new home the covenant of Adrasteia located in Cilicia Trachea, the rugged hinterland of the Cilician coast within the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia and given the name Anechka.
The Apprenticeship
Anechkavanya has a close and respectful relationship with her Parens who provided ample and thorough training - the focus being Creo, Perdo and Vim. Anya spent a great deal of effort ensuring any vestiges of the magical heritage which would be considered negative by detractors amongst the Order did not manifest. Only the strange cold breeze which can rise to a gale - when Anechkavanya casts spells of great strength – remains, though this appears only to raise the fears of those without magical resistance and is not of itself dangerous, or forceful. Anechkavanya has incorporated this warped magic into her sigil in an effort to disguise it. Her sigil is a light breeze carrying the smell and feel of a dark night in the crisp mountain air.
As part of her efforts to eclipse the Hedge Wizard reputation the proud and ambitious Anechkavanya – with the agreement of her Parens - sought additional training amongst senior members of the tumultuous Levant Tribunal. Two responded and agreed, a Bonisagus Seeker for whom she now feels a great deal of respect, and Hoplite of House Flambeau to whom she also owes a debt and whose powers she holds in great admiration. The Bonisagus Magus improved her knowledge of Magical Theory as well as introducing her to Medicine and Philosophiae. The Flambeau Magus improved her Penetration, Finesse and Parma Magica. These two Magi are allied within the Tribunal and saw probable utility within the potentially powerful young apprentice.
The Magical and Fae Bloodlines
Anechkavanya brings two of the Titan Helios’ blood lines together, as well as adding the heritage of Zeus and Dionysus. She comes from the lineage of Circe and the Greek Hero Odysseus, through Odysseus and Penelope’s son Telemachus who married Circe, as well as the God Dionysus through his marriage to Ariadne – daughter of King Minos and Pasiphaë – and is a distant cousin of Medea, Daughter of the Colchian King Aeetes. These familial connections manifest themselves in a powerful gift which terrifies normal people and animals while she additionally has the overt Faerie traits – courtesy of Dionysus and Minos - of almost translucent white skin and vivid grey eyes shot with bright ruby red flecks.
The gift runs more powerfully through the female line and has manifested in ancestors and relatives such as Circe, Medea and Ariadne.
The Hedge Wizard reputation
Anechkavanya’s reputation as a Hedge Wizard is a result of her ancestry, rather than the magical tradition she is trained in, or the way she practices her own magic – which is flawless. Her reputation is derived from the interpretations of her ancestors casting methods that have been intertwined with the fear these powerful women evoked when they lived and continue to inspire.
The narratives which contribute to this reputation include:
Circe in the Odyssey
Circe in Apollonius’ Argonautica Book IV
Circe in Ovid
Medea in Apollonius’ Argonautica Book IV
She [Medea] boiled with rage. She longed to set the ship on fire, to break it up and hurl herself into the flames. But Jason calmed her. She had frightened him.
And she [Medea] reinforced her words with magic; scattering to the four winds spells of such potency as would have drawn wild creatures far away to come down from their mountain fastnesses.
Medea went up on the deck. She covered both her cheeks with a fold of her purple mantle, and Jason led her by the hand as she past across the benches. Then, with incantations, she invoked the Spirits of Death, the swift hounds of Hades who feed on souls and haunt the lower air to pounce on living men. She sank to her knees and called upon them, three times in song, three times with spoken prayers. She steeled herself with her malignity and bewitched the eyes of Talos with the evil in her own. She flung at him the full force of her malevolence, and in an ecstasy of rage she plied him with images of death.
Medea in Ovid’s Metamorphoses VII
The king lay relaxed in deathlike sleep and his attendants too were in a deep slumber, caused by Medea’s spells and by the powerful magic words she had pronounced.
The new bride whom Jason had married was consumed by fire, kindled by the Colchian’s poisons, and the seas on either side of the isthmus saw the king’s house in flames.
Ariadne in Catullus 64
… I am forced to bring forth from my very
Marrow, helpless, burning, blinded by mindless passion.
But since they are true children of my inmost heart
Be sure you suffer not our grief to go for nothing,
…After she had poured forth these words from her sad heart,
In anguish claiming punishment for cruel deeds,
…Theseus’ self, his mind thick-sown with blinding dark,
Let slip from his forgetful heart all the commands
Which hitherto he had kept constantly in mind…
These commands, hitherto kept constantly in mind,
Drifted from Theseus like clouds driven by the wind’s
Breath from the airy summit of a snowy mountain.
Anya of Ex Miscellanea, Parens of Anechkavanya
Stern and encouraging, as well as kindly when needed, Anya was a good teacher for the young Tsdrig, whom she named Anechka during her apprenticeship. Anya needed to do little to prompt her student who, after understanding her position within the covenant and her possible future within the Order of Hermes, threw herself into her studies and practice with unerring determination.
Anya’s personality
Relationship with Anechkavanya
Style of training and upbringing
Anechkavanya Hratchouhi Ex Miscellanea
During her apprenticeship Anechka was nicknamed Hratchouhi by the members of the Covenant, not just for her fire-flecked eyes but also the mostly hidden passion with which she pursued any objective she set her mind to – something that would only flare from strong and controlled presence when her pride was pricked or her drive buoyed. Named Anechkavanya at the completion of her apprenticeship she also adopted the Covenant nickname she had been given. Both as acknowledgement of the debt she owed to all those within it’s walls as well as pride in knowing that the name rang true for her drive as much as her appearance.
Tall but painfully slender and pale Anechka’s appearance has been likened by other Magi to an Icicle. The red flecks within her eyes belie this, as does her engaging wit with other Magi. With normals though, few get past her appearance and the power of her blatant gift to discover anything other than their own fear and the hatred that oft accompanies it. Not that she pays much heed to normals unless their actions impact upon her in some way.
Anechkavanya has yet to determine the best way to eclipse her reputation. Thus far she has concentrated on improving and perfecting her abilities. But she considers herself lucky to be within the Levant Tribunal as the political climate and conflict, both within the Tribunal and on the borders, offers ample opportunities to prove her worth to respected members of the Order.
Anechkavanya (Russian: Gracious gift of God) Hratchouhi (Armenian: Fire-eyed female) Ex Miscellanea
Age: 25 Year Born: 1195 Place of Birth:
Height: 5'7'' Weight: 80 lbs
Hair: Raven black and waist length Eyes: Vivid grey shot with flecks of bright red
Handedness: Left Race: Minoan/Greek Religion: Catholic
Decrepitude: 0 Warping Score: 0 (0) Confidence: 1 (3)
Characteristics:
Int: +3 (Calculating)
Per: +1 (Considered)
Pre: +1 (Confident)
Com: +1 (Provocative)
Str: ‑3 (Waif)
Sta: +2 (Hidden)
Dex: +1 (Light Step)
Qik: +1 (Initiative)
Virtues: The Gift, Unaging, Affinity with Creo, Affinity with Perdo, Puissant Creo, Puissant Perdo, Flawless Magic (Study Totals: Doubled for spell mastery), Affinity with Penetration, Affinity with Parma Magica, Hermetic Magus, Skilled Parens, Strong Sidhe Blood, Second Sight.
Flaws: Blatant Gift (Interactions: ‑6 with normals), Favors (to senior members of the Levant Tribunal), Driven (to overcome her Hedge Wizard reputation), Proud, Hedge Wizard, Warped Magic (a cold breeze blows past Anechkavanya), small frame
Personality Traits: Proud +3, Calculating +3, Ambitious +3
Reputations: Hedge Wizard 3
Combat:
Dodge: Init: +1, Attack ‑‑, Defense +1, Damage ‑‑
Fist: Init: +1, Attack +1, Defense +1, Damage ‑3
Kick: Init: +0, Attack +1, Defense +0, Damage +0
Soak: +2
Fatigue levels: OK, 0, ‑1, ‑3, ‑5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties (Change): ‑1 (1‑4), ‑3 (5‑8), ‑5 (9‑12), Incapacitated (13‑16)
Abilities: level/xp
Second Sight [Regiones] 1/0 (5)
Charm [Magi] 2/15
Greek [Colchian Lore] 5/0 (75)
Awareness [Spell Effects] 2/15
Folk Ken [Magi] 2/15
Concentration [Spell Casting] 2/15
Guile [Magi] 1/5
Intrigue [Alliances] 1/5
Order of Hermes Lore [Politics] 1/5
Swim [Staying Afloat] 1/5
Latin [Hermetic Usage] 4/50
Artes Liberales [Astronomy] 1/5
Philosophiae [Ritual Magic] 1/5
Medicine [Apothecary] 1/5
Finesse [Targeting] 2/15
Magic Theory [Inventing Spells] 4/50
Code of Hermes [Political Intrigue] 1/5
Penetration [Vim] 4/33 (50)
Faerie Lore [of the
Arts:
Techniques: Cr 10+3 (37xp), In 0, Mu 0, Pe 10+3 (37xp), Re 0
Forms: An 1 (1xp), Aq 0, Au 0, Co 5 (15xp), He 0, Ig 1 (1xp), Im 0, Me 1 (1xp), Te 0, Vi 10 (55xp)
Equipment:
Beautiful dark green wizards robe with black shadowing and gold trim.
Encumbrance: 0 (0)
Beautiful dark green formal gowns with black shadowing and gold trim.
Encumbrance: 0 (0)
Spells Known:
Demon's Eternal Oblivion (PeVi 20) +26, Mastery 1 (multiple casting)
Gather the Essence of the Beast (ReVi 15) +13, Mastery 1 (quiet casting)
Anechkavanya's Gift (CrVi 20) +26, Mastery 1 (multiple casting)
Bind Wound (CrCo 10) +21, Mastery 1 (penetration)
Pilum of Fire (CrIg 20) +17, Mastery 1 (penetration)
Charm Against Putrefaction (CrCo 10) +21, Mastery 1 (penetration)
Grip of the Choking Hand (PeCo 25) +21, Mastery 1 (still casting)
The Wound that Weeps (PeCo 15) +21, Mastery 1 (multiple casting)
Agony of the Beast (PeAn 15) +17, Mastery 1 (still casting)
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