Lucia Filia Maximus

Characteristics: Int 0, Per 0, Pre +3, Com +2, Str –1, Sta –1, Dex 0, Qik 0

Size: 0 Age: 74 (42)

Decrepitude: 0 Warping Score: 4 (10)

Confidence Score: 2 (5)

Virtues and Flaws: The Gift; Hermetic Magus; Gentle Gift; Minor Magical Focus (Seduction), Quiet Magic (×2), Self-Confident, Subtle Magic, Venus' Blessing; Driven (to gain power), Tormenting Master; Offensive to Animals, Weak Enchanter

Personality Traits: Scheming +3, Controlling +2, Cruel +1

Reputations: Federico's Lover 2 (Casalmaggiore court)

Combat:

Dodge: Init +0, Attack N/A, Defense +0, Damage N/A

Fist: Init +0, Attack +0, Defense +0, Damage –1

Soak: –1

Fatigue Levels: OK, 0, –1, –3, –5, Unconscious

Wound Penalties: –1 (1–5), –3 (6–10), –5 (11–15), Incapacitated (16–20), Dead (21+)

Abilities: Artes Liberales 2 (rhetoric), Awareness 3 (alertness), Carouse 3 (courtly dances), Charm 4 (magi), Code of Hermes 3 (Tribunal procedures), Etiquette 4 (court), Finesse 3 (casting speed), Folk Ken 4 (magi), Guile 4 (misdirection), Intrigue 4 (plotting), Italian 5 (poetry), Latin 4 (Hermetic usage), Leadership 4 (magi), Magic Theory 5 (Mentem), Organization Lore: Order of Hermes 2 (personalities), Parma Magica 5 (Mentem), Penetration 4 (Mentem), Philosophiae 2 (ceremonial magic)

Arts: Cr 16, In 13, Mu 10, Pe 16, Re 10, An 5, Aq 5, Au 5, Co 15, He 5, Ig 11, Im 6, Me 19, Te 5, Vi 9

Equipment: Red dress, earring talisman

Encumbrance: 0

Spells Known:

Disguise of the Transformed Image (MuIm 15/+15)

Words of the Unbroken Silence (CrMe 10/+34)

All Heads Turn (CrMe 15/+54*+)

Defend Me (CrMe 20/+34)

The Subtle Burn of Desire (CrMe 20/+54*+) A Night's Passion (CrMe 25/+54*+)

Revelation of a Hundred Sinful Thoughts (InMe 30/+44*)

Distraction of the Weakened Mind (PeMe 5/+34)

All Vows Forgotten (PeMe 20/+54*+)

Enchantment of Detachment (PeMe 15/+34) Aura of Rightful Authority (ReMe 20/+28) Extracting the False Confession (ReMe 40/+28)

Wizard's Communion (MuVi 15/+18)

Appearance: A striking woman in her early forties with dark hair, pale skin, and lips of deep pink. Red is her color and she is always seen wearing a red dress, which makes the red sash around her middle less obvious. When meeting magi, the dress is decorated with gold brocade, the material stiff, making her appear more like an icon of rulership than a human being, and her cap is decorated with gold and gems to resemble a crown. When within the court of Casalmaggiore, she wraps herself in her Disguise of the Transformed Image spell, returning the stunning beauty of her mid-twenties. Her dress is fitted close to her figure, and a little of her hair is visible, as if by accident, from under her cap. If magi spy on her in her laboratory, she wears simple, and practical, masculine clothes, although they are still red. In all cases, her talisman, a gold and emerald earring, is visible on her left ear.

Casting Sigil: A sense of arousal is felt by her targets or by those detecting the residues of her spells.

• * Includes her Magical Focus
• • Includes talisman bonuses

Lucia possesses a distracting beauty, especially to mundanes with little chance to resist her enchantments. Gifted with the ability to cast silently and without gestures, her preferred spells all use the Eye range. These gifts make detecting her spell-casting difficult and she commonly employs any number of minor spontaneous Mentem effects to ensure she gets her way. Among magi, she dresses and behaves so that her beauty is striking rather than alluring, and reinforces her aura of authority. She relies on her considerable social skill rather than magic, at least to begin with.

The four magi of the Trattato are caught in a spiral. Their arrogance, delusions, envy, and arbitrary desire for change are reinforcing each other. They have no set lands they wish to gain, no particular vis sources to target, and no limits to their ambition. This is little more than a game to Lucia and Patronus, the fulfillment of destiny for Avedutus, and a means to strike back at the world for Al-'Aqrab.

Lucia wants to control people and material wealth. She wants to rule, and as a child it was already apparent to her that Mythic Europe does not like to see women rule. Her initial delight at the openness of the Order of Hermes soon turned to contempt for its refusal to let one maga rule over another. She resolved to prove that she could rule both magi and mundanes.

Among mundanes, she is the archetypal seductress, the woman in red, the femme fatale: ambitious, manipulative, mock-vulnerable, and deadly. She is willing and able to use her sexuality to lead others astray and bend them to her will. Lucia is naturally attractive, and a mistress of subtle Mentem magic, so this form of rulership comes easily to her. She has mastered a number of spells that promote amorous desire in her targets, fascination in those around her, and ad-