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Welcome, and On the Ministers

Welcome to the Blacklight Corps!  Here you’ll find political commentary, comic reviews and homemade material and ideas for the World of Darkness RPG.

For my first post, let’s take a look at my favorite game, Mage: the Awakening – namely, the Ministers, among the most powerful mages in the Fallen World (or as close as they can get to it).  The Greater Ministers supposedly have access to immeasurable power.

However, many STs are going to want to give statistics to these monsters among men, to allow these guys to interact with the world (or because someone will want to fight them eventually).  So, I gave some thought to what the book describes the Greater Ministers like, and have come up with some shared traits that the Exarchs’ servants have, for the purposes of gameplay.

First: there is the Tyrrannate and Citadel – the former is the demiplane a Minister owns, and the latter the focus of his power in said Realm. 

The Tyrrannate is a vast landscape reflecting the Exarch and Ministry in question.  This could be a bloody battlefield for the General, or a Heaven-like realm that nevertheless tortures unwelcome beings with Hellish Torment for the Father’s.  This realm is littered with traps and servants of all sorts – spirits from Shadow, Ghosts from the Underworld, and creatures that the Minister has crafted are all common, as are stranger things.  The Citadel is also massive, but more under control; it is also populated by Seer Servants, warped by the Realm and the Minister’s power.  The exact results are up to the ST, but this could be anything from Prelacies and multiple Legacies to powers from other supernatural beings.

The Citadel has a throne room somewhere in the center; this is where the Minister resides.  His palace acts as a massive Hallow: the whole plane is a Hallow 1 outside of the walls of the citadel, accessable by any mage (with the Minister’s permission).  The Castle has ten rooms for the Secretaries, which act as a level 5 Hallow for the Secretaries who reside in them alone when they come to the Citadel (most are often empty).  The Throne itself is a Hallow 10 for the Minister alone.

The Throne is actually forged from several Supernal beings of the appropriate realm, and is still alive (but in terrible pain).  It acts as a Supernal Anchor, giving the Realm its Demense-like qualities.  It is so powerful, in fact, that it also acts like a Temple Stone for all four Ministries.

The Minister has many powers that are HIS own, as well.  First, he has all of the Prelacies of his Exarch, which don’t count against his limit (nor do the Temple Stone ones).  This almost always includes the Sword of Vision and Crown of Doctrine.  They are also all Gnosis 10, capable of wielding incredible Supernal power.

Stats are mostly irrelevant, at first glance, but one needs to know how their magic works – many of their spells can be cast sympathetically without much effort.  Typically, the Ministers have three Attributes at 10 dots, and two more at 9; the rest are at 8 dots.  Skill-wise, mark the Ministry’s Rote Specialities, and give the Minister 10 dots in those; in addition, the Minister has three ADDITIONAL Rote Specialties that he has developed at 10 dots as well; few have less than 7 dots in any other skill.

Ministers have their Exarch’s Arcanum at 10 dots.  In theory, they are gods over that purview of the mortal world; in practice, few can comprehend the scope of such spells (i.e. a way for the ST to weasel out of describing the effects of a 10-dot base spell or Mystery), and they are difficult to put together without Quintessences.  However, this does allow them to use more effective versions of their Master level spells; in theory, this also allows them to create servants out of their Arcana or a mix of them that last indefinitely.  The other Arcana are held at the limits of their Gnosis (with the stars progressing down from 10 to 6 dots).  Their Path Arcana must be two of the top three; if the Minister is not of a path that grants their Exarch’s Arcanum, they must have a Legacy for it.

The Merits a Minister possesses can be maddening.  As mentioned in the Seers book, they have Social Merits through the Ministry they rule over; it would be almost impossible to list the Merits that represent connections to Mages and the Fallen World.  Assume that he has whatever social merits he needs, especially in terms of Retainers, Contacts, Resources and Allies (He also is considered to have Luxury 4 without any drawbacks).

He does have many Mental and Physical Merits as well.  The typical Minister gains incredible knowledge from the Exarch Communion, to the point that he has the following Mental Merits: Common Sense, Danger Sense, Encyclopedic Knowledge, Eidetic Memory, Good Time Management, Higher Calling, Hypnotic Voice, Hypnosis, Language 3, Lucid Dreamer, Meditative Mind, Psychic Resistance 3, Vision 5, Well-traveled, and Whispers.

Physically, the Minister’s merits include: Disarm, Direction Sense, Fast Reflexes 2, Fleet of Foot 3, Fresh Start, Giant, Iron Stamina 3, Iron Stomach, Natural Immunity, Quick Draw, Quick Healer, Strong Back, Strong Lungs, Toxin Resistance, and the most appropriate Dodge merit.

The Mage also has the Relic Creator, Shadow Contacts 5, Shadowless Chambers 5 and Sin Eater Merits.

The Citadel’s Sanctum Size is considered to be 10 – it is larger than anyone can conceivably use on his own; assume that it is at least a mile wide on each side of the base, and at least two miles tall.  Security-wise, it is also rated at 10 – getting in can often be fatal to ordinary Mages.  The Sanctum also has a Sanctum Material Rating of 10 (see Sanctum and Sigil) – it has walls of Thaumium with a Siderite plating underneath that, keeping magic and mundane intruders occupied.  It has a Library of 5, representing any subjects the Minister deems necessary, and 5 dots each in Alchemical Lab, Guardian Ghost, Guardian Spirit, and Scriptorium, as well as the ability to alter the Gauntlet to any level the Minister chooses.  Finally, he has four summoning circles, one each devoted to the Exarch’s Realm, Shadow, Underworld and Abyss.  Finally, it has ratings of 5 in Amenities, Doors and Wards (Changeling).

Each Minister has a set of Familiars that belongs to the Exarch – these Familiars are his regardless of his own Familiar listings:

• One Fetch with the Potent Familiar Merit x2
• One Embodied Familiar w/ Potent x2
• One Ghost Familiar w/ Potent x2
• One Embodied Goetic Familiar, Potent 1
• One Disemb. Goetic, Potent 1
• One Supernal Companion of Each Path Arcanum, Potent 1
• One Supernal Companion, Exarch’s Realm Potent 2

Each Minister has multiple artifacts, at least one of each level from 3 dots to 12 dots.  He also has Atlantean Hesychia, Cartomancer, Daimon, Dream 10 (Mystery Commands Flaw), Destiny 5, Extemporaneous Affinity 4, Geomancy, Gesture Lore (all types), Glyph Lore (all types), Guise of Death, High Speech, Law of Embodiment, Manifestation Machine 3, Master Exorcist, Occultation 3, Slayer, Summoner’s Soul (any realm), Ancient Signs, Celestial Name 7, Astral Adept, Lu 5, Ancient Echoes 5, Cult of Things that Must Not Be 5 (Choose 5 powers), Reality Blasphemy 5, Nimbus Sense, Supernal Resistance 3, and Tendogakure Hyoho

The Minister also has access to all Psychic and Thaumaturgy Merits from Second Sight.  Many of these are redundant, but the Minister has additional powers due to his communion with the Exarch; this represents the constant flow of Gnosis from on high.  This also includes a seperate Dream 5 Merit from his Dream 10.

(http://wodindex.wikispaces.com/Merits for descriptions on most; if you can’t figure it out, ignore it or make it up to fit what you need )

The Minister has powers not found in Merits, however.  First, the Minister can, 5 times a day, regain all spent Willpower independent of Virtue, Vice or rest (though the Minister regains 1 point a day through contact with the Exarch’s will).  Further, a Minister has two free DOTS of Willpower to craft Imbued Items or other things that require such expenditures.

Second, in addtion to the Mana his Throne provides, the Minister IS a level 5 Hallow that only he can access

The Minister has no Wisdom rating to speak of; if somehow a Minister’s Spell causes a Paradox, treat the duration as per a Wisdom 1 individual.

The Minister cannot gain derangements, which is why he can use the Whispers Merit to generate instant visions.  The Minister can use each version (the 10 and 5 dots) Dream Merit 11 times per day (see below).

The Minister can multitask to the extreme.  He has 11 actions in any given turn, supposedly one for each Iron Seal.  This can be added to with Multitasking.  Only one action can be used for speaking directly, though he can use Forces to create mouthpieces for the other fragmented parts of his mind.  He also can use multiple actions on physical events, but must be somewhat realistic (he can’t wield two swords in the same hand, but could dance an interpretation of his Dream while he fences with two foes), as well as multiple magical actions (but only one Rote at a time).

Finally, the Minister gains the Rote Quality on every non-magical action; “magic” includes Thaumaturgy and Psychic merits, as well as Dream and Destiny and the like, but not powers such as Common Sense.  This stacks with other benefits that grant the Rote Quality.

The ST may add to this list for each Exarch, obviously, but this represents obvious powers and ideas of those powers for the Greater Ministers in general, as well as powers that are passed from one Minister to another with the Exarch’s favor (i.e. the Artifacts and Familiars are bound to the office, not the holder).

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