Background Information

Aurulentus' connection to his family is very different than the norm among magi. The following is information about his family history and the impact it has on his career as a magus.

Aurulentus' great-great-great-grandfather, Askanius, visited Greece where he met and fell in love with a nymph of Artemis. She bore him his seventh son (named Alexander) and an ageing priest of the goddess revealed to him that every seventh son of his family would hold a measure of Artemis herself in his blood. Furthermore, once seven continuous generations of seventh sons were born, this seventh son in the seventh generation would be able to reshape magic. Alexander started a mission to ensure that in every generation at least seven sons were born. Aurulentus is in the fifth generation. Not surprisingly, his corporeal father took him as his apprentice early in his childhood. At the age of 13, he was told of the full extent of the prophecy and the differing views his ancestors had on how to father seven sons — something that is now also expected of him. Around the age of 18, Aurulentus found the only comfort of

his youth: Semira, the daughter of a Latin instructor. Because of this love, Aurulentus revised his understanding of the prophecy: the only woman whom he wanted to have children with was Semira. In order to have seven sons with one and the same woman, it was necessary to guarantee the health and fertility of both man and woman for a sufficiently long time, prompting his research into Creo and Corpus magics. During his career, Aurulentus invents numerous spells concerned with childbirth and healing, as well as creating a number of items and spells designed to facilitate the daily life of a mother of many children. His most impressive feat, however, will be the invention of a Longevity Ritual that preserves his fertility.

If you use the Original Research rules from Houses of Hermes: True Lineages, page 26 these are the steps used by Aurulentus to complete his Minor Hermetic Breakthrough. He gained valuable breakthrough insights from the following research: studying the Bronze Cord of his familiar, exploring the controlled aging process of the spell Bane of the Decrepit Body (three separate inventions were needed), investigating the reasons for the infertile Longevity Rituals using the spell The Maculate Noblewoman (four different inventions were needed to perfect the spell), inspecting the Hermetic treatment of Aging Crises using the spell Widening the River Styx (again needing three starts), three times probing the fertility concepts of his own spell Artemis' Fertility, and finally experimenting with numerous Longevity Rituals of fourth magnitude. Unsuccessful research directions were the analysis of a woman's fertility using the spells Pose Clotho's Question and Pose Nona's Question. Also not promising was his idea of watching an actual act of conception using the spell Verifying the Presence of Artemis' Blessing. Six seasons in total were spent on stabilizing his research.