Serapis Advancement Log

Biographical history

• Spring 1185: Cotrone, a town on the southern coast of the Italian peninsular, part of the Kingdom of Sicily. Marcos is born into a wealthy family of silk merchants.
• Winter 1194: Marcos’ parents both die from a plague. Orphaned, he is taken in as a ward by his uncle.
  His uncle is a bad businessman and he and his wife like to enjoy life a bit too much - the couple spends too much money on luxuries, taking loans on the business to fuel their sybaritic lifestyle. Over the next few years they run the business into the ground.
  Despite his uncles protestations, Marcos receives a good education at the municipal school, originally founded by Pythagoras as a continuation of his semicircle.
• Summer 1201: Marcos reaches adulthood. He takes ownership of his family business and sells what it left to a competitor. Leaving his uncle and aunt destitute, he travels to Salerno to join the University to study Medicine.
• Spring 1203: Marcos meets Justine, a princess who is studying music with a private tutor in Salerno. Marcos learns to play the lute so he can spend time near here. They fall in love and are married just over a month later.
• Spring 1204: Tragedy strikes. Marcos’ wife, Justine, dies from a snakebite. She was pregnant.
• Winter 1204: Heartbroken, Marcos’ studies turn dark. Patching together lore from occult tomes, he attempts a ritual to bring Justine back from death.
  It fails… badly. But the ritual was not without power and it marked him, drawing the attention of nearby ghosts and spirits.
• Spring 1205: Marcos becomes obsessed, driven with the need to bring his wife back from death. Undeterred by his previous failure, Marcos delves deeply into dark and forgotten lore. His sinister studies draw the attention of a cabal of Mathematicii, lurking in the shadows of the university. They approached Marcos and ask him to join their cabal.
  However, the Mathematicii were themselves being watched. Carles Severel, a Guernicus magus of Schola Medica Salernitana (an independent covenant also ensconced within the halls of the university), became aware of the gifted young man through watching the Mathematicii. He also approached Marcos and offered him apprenticeship in ‘real magic’. Marcos challenged the Guernicus Magus to prove that his magic was stronger. The Guernicus duelled each of the Mathematicii in turn and easily defeated them.
  Marcos agreed to join the Guernicus as apprentice once his studies with the university were complete.
• Summer 1205: Marcos completes his Baccalaureate and is apprenticed into House Guernicus of the Order of Hermes, and joins the Schola Medica Salernitana.
• Summer 1214: Rhine Tribunal of 1353 AA. Crintera continue their political attacks against their neighbour. While there is no evidence that Oculus Septentrionalis is deliberately interfering with the mundanes, they argue that the mere proximity of the covenant to the townsfolk endangers the order. Surprisingly, this position is supported by Waddenzee and the tribunal vote narrowly supports the motion. The tribunal rules that there is no evidence to require an investigation but because of the potential risk, a request will be made to House Guernicus to monitor the interaction of Oculus Septentrionalis.
• Winter 1214: Marcos skill with mentem magics grows and his facility with spirit magic develops. Through self study, piecing together lore from many tomes, learns the rudiments of Spell Binding.
• Spring 1216 onwards: As part of his apprenticeship, Marcos travels extensively with his Parens and spends almost two tears at Magvillus.
  During these travels that Marcos meets magi who, unknown to him, are Disciples of the Worm. The begin corresponding with Marcos, encouraging his studies into spirit magic, providing advice and help.
• Spring 1219: Marcos passes his Gauntlet at Magvillus and takes the name Serapis, after the Graeco-Egyptian deity of death and rebirth.
  The newly gauntleted magus is appointed to Oculus Septentrionalis in the Rhine tribunal, to monitor the covenants involvement in mundane affairs and report to the Rhine Tribunal gathering of 1221.
• Spring 1219: Serapis packs his meagre belongings and the supplies given to him in payment for his appointment. He sets off northwards to Harco.
  But his journey to Harco was not without incident. To avoid bandits, Serapis is forced to stray from the road and becomes lost in a forest regio. Unable to muster enough Vim magic to escape the regio, Serapis resigns himself to death - soon he will be with his wife again, although not the way he wanted.
  But he is not alone. An oversized raven calls to him from a tree. At first, the raven speaks in the gutteral barbarian speech of the northmen but switches to a more civilised tongue as soon as it realises the man does not understand. The raven offers to show Serapis the way out of the regio, for a price…
  Anything, agrees Serapis. The raven flies at his face, pecking and clawing at his eyes. To Serapis, it felt like his eyes were being plucked from his head - the pain is excruciating as the raven stiches it’s magic into Serapis’ eyes.
  Now you can see! Cackles the raven. And what is your price? Serapis cried. That will come later boy, said the raven as it flies off. Once the pain and blood clears, Serapis found that he could plainly see a path that would lead him out of the regio. (The raven has taught the ability Second Sight and Serapis’ pupils turn black granting him a Piercing Gaze).
  Eventually, he reaches Harco, from where he uses the Mercere portals to travel to Crintera. From there he travels by sea, finally arriving in Lubeck two months after departing from Magvillus.
  
• Summer 1219: Serapis, the Sicilian Physician sets up shop in Lubeck. Serapis does not announce himself to the Magi of the covenant.
  Serapis uses magic to create a good reputation within Lubeck as a ‘trustworthy’ physician.
• Autumn 1219: Disguised in Lubeck
• Winter 1219: Disguised in Lubeck
• Spring 1220: Now…

Other background details

Orpheus

Serapis is a descendant of the Orpheus of legend. Orpheus was one of the Argonauts. After retrieving the Golden Fleece, the Argo’s voyage home was not as easy as the voyage out. They braved many dangers but also enjoyed the ‘local cuisine’ (if you know what I mean, nudge-nudge, wink-wink) at many ports. One of the ports at which the Argo stopped on the long voyage home was Cotrone.

Many of the events in Serapis’ life parallel those of his ancestor:

• Both orphaned young.
• His wife was killed by a snake. As was Euridice.
• Serapis’ Latent Magical Ability, should connect to the myth of Orpheus. Enchanting Music would be the obvious choice. But given that his gift has been tuned to Hermetic magic, Performance Magic (Music) would also be appropriate. Or a music based Lesser Power or Personal Power (RoP:M) might work.
• The names of their wives: Euridice means ‘wide justice’ in old Greek. Justine is from the Latin for ‘Justice’.
• Both driven to bring their dead wives back from death.
• Orpheus is credited with giving Medicine to mankind. Serapis studied Medicine at Salerno.
• Orpheus was a seer; he practiced the magical arts.

Pythagoras

Cotrone is also connected to Pythagoras. While Pythagoras is most famous for his arithmetic, he was also a mystic philosopher. Some magi, notably members of house Criamon and the Fraternity of Samos (named for the place of Pythagoras birth) believe he may have been Gifted.

Serapis

Serapis is a Graeco-Egyptian deity of the late Ptolemaic era. Combining aspects of Osiris, Apis and Dionysis - he is a god of the underworld but also a god of resurrection. Statues of Serapis bear a strong resemblance to Hades.

Story seeds

Mythic Echoes.

Serapis’ connection to his ancestor is not positive, it is embodied by the flaws Heroic Personality and Driven. Serapis is fated and compelled to relive the key elements of Orpheus’ story.
Several elements of Orpheus’ epic tales are already covered by Serapis bio, but the two biggest events are yet to be told.
- Serapis will go on a journey but the journey home will take much longer than the journey outward (The Argonautica)
- Serapis will bring his dead wife back to life (Orpheus’ descent into the Underworld)
Neither of these were ultimately a positive outcome for Orpheus - will Serapis’ retelling end the same way? Or will he overcome fate and succeed where Orpheus failed?

The Unborn Child.

Justine was pregnant when she died - her unvirtuous life has consigned her to a Purgatory.
Even though her spirit in Purgatory should be reachable by Hermetic magic, Serapis is unable to call her spirit back from the dead because her spirit and that of the child are bound together - to call one back he must call them both. To do this, he will need an arcane connection to the child.
Maybe the troupe can come up with an interesting story which enables Serapis to get this arcane connection.
Otherwise, there will be a journey home to southern Italy for some light grave robbing. Note, calling up a spirit with Hermetic magic is a level 40 ReMe spell - Serapis cannot achieve yet. but he may find an alternative means to call up her spirit…

Hyperborea.

Ancient tales tell of Hyperborea, the Land Beyond the North Wind. Visited in ancient times by several of the Greek heroes - Theseus, Perseus and seen by the crew of the Argo, it is a place of unparalleled magic and mystery.
The Hyperboreans were known for their mysterious ways and their strange magic. Records from antiquity tell of their fabled ability of flight and instantaneous travel, their power to project their spirit, visit the spirit world, transform into birds, and perform powerful underworld magic.
One tale tells of a Hyperborean who summoned powerful spirits and ghosts, reanimated corpses, and called down the moon, while others recount that the Hyperborean Aristeas returned to life after seven years of death and lived for hundreds of years.
One of the reasons that Serapis will travel north is to search for fabled Hyperborea, and to recover the ancient priests lost knowledge of spirit magic / necromancy. Mechanically, I would like to represent this with the systems described under Canaanite Necromancy in Ancient Magic (AG0284).

Orpheus’ descent into the Underworld.

The OoH believes the old gods were faeries. if this is true, then it is likely that the Hades visited by Orpheus was actually a faerie regio. It follows that the ‘wife’ he brought back was also a faerie playing the role - not really his wife at all. (The part of the story where Orpheus ‘looked back’ is a metaphor for him realising it was not real - the glamour broke and his wife’s faerie body returned to the matter it was created from).
Perhaps Serapis finds an entrance to the Underworld (Hel) and quests into the depths to bring back his wife. Will he realise it is all a faerie lie? Or will he live happily believing he has succeeded?