The Angels With Leaden Feathers: A Verditus Mystery Cult

Why do so many Verditus magi make submersibles? We have focused, in the published books, on magical submarines, but let’s think about something else. Let’s think about bathyspheres.

Imagine a sphere that is lowered into the dark. It must be a perfect sphere. if it has a flaw, it will collapse and you will be crushed to death. You are alone in the darkness. If you can see out into the ocean, it is through perfectly clear quartz circles which you have made. You are sinking, and then you will rise. You will be reborn in to the light and air.

At the bottom of the ocean do the great titanoi dance? Do the dragons of the waters writhe? Does the Leviathan wait for the end of days? Something is down there, and you plummet toward it.

A plummet is a mason’s tool: a lead weight on a line. It points perfectly downward, to allow you to build columns toward the sun, and to measure the depth of oceans. Many plummets have a hollow at the tip, so that a fragment of the seabead can be bought to the surface.

The Latin for lead is plumbum and for feathers is plumata. Plumes are named for once guiding the flight of lead darts. The Verditus use grey feathers and the icarus under the water as a symbol for their cult.

Some say that the masters of this cult fall so they can rise: they are building bathyspheres which rise into Twilight, protecting their passengers from Warping as they examine the Magical Realm. Many think the reason Verditius make automata they can ride inside is for war, but this is not so. They hope to create an excursion suit that can move when it is in the Magical Realm.

Shape and material bonuses

Lead

• Wards 4 (Ars Magica fifth edition p110)
• Hatred 3 (The Mysteries Revised Edition p33)
• Summoning or binding ghosts 3 (Houses of Hermes: True Lineages p139)
• Summon or bind spirits 3 (Realms of Power: Infernal p123)

Rope

• Restraint or binding 4 (Ars Magica fifth edition p110)
• Strangulation 2 (Ars Magica fifth edition p110)

Creating a lead-line as a talisman

A lead line makes an excellent talisman, particularly if it is enchanted so that the magus can cause it to move independently. “The Invisible Porter”, for example, allows a magus to use the line to draw a circle, or to send the line over a wall or out a window. A magus with Touch range extended by a cable can use the questing tip of the plummet to make spells easier by seeking out contact with an enemy, or can create a tripline, spreading Touch across an entire path.

A lead line traditionally is knotted or marked in fathoms. A fathom is the distance between the two outstretched arms of a sailor, although this was later standardised to  two yards. The British naval custom is that anything deeper than 100 fathoms is offshore, and is charted as unfathomable. It seems unlikely that a magus carry a line six hundred feet long, but that number may be of use to the magi designing bathyspheric intitations.

The plummet of the talisman is traditionally lead, although it can be any weight. This makes this portion of the talisman a small object of base metal. (10 pawns). The most ancient so far discovered are stone, but wood and bronze are also common, and ivory is known if rare. Wood and ivory are easier to open to enchantment (4 pawns).

The line of the plummet is a rope, or perhaps a chain. By weight it may be a large object made of cloth (4 pawns), but shorter lines are possible (3 pawns). If chain is used instead, it is base metal object of large or medium size. (20 or 15 pawns).

Initiation script for the outer mystery of the Angels with Leaden Wings

The Fall Into Darkness is an initiation into a new Virtue: Ways of the Lands of Magic. This grants a +3 bonus on rolls to navigate within the Magical Realm. It may also provide some benefit in dealing with the strange environment found there.

Characters who have undergone the Fall find it difficult to deal with the minutae of corporeal life. They find human society difficult to enjoy, and find living the the randomness of the world irritating. This is modelled with the Oversensitive Flaw.

Assuming the Mystogogue has a combined Presence and Cult Lore of 9, the script is

• Must travel to a sacred part of the sea, at a certain time +3
• Minor ordeal (Oversensitive gained) +3
• Quest (it is very difficult to find a Verditius Mystagogue willing to assist in the venture) +3
• Quest Must go to the Cave of Twisting Shadows, to examine the Axis Magica, which is a reflection of what the character is attempting to build +3.
• Sacrifice of wealth and time (create bathysphere) +2
• Sympathetic bonus for the rite +3
• If the character has a talisman it must be destroyed and replaced with a lead-line. If the character does not have a talisman, they must quest for a special item to act as the plummet. (+2)

Total 30: Grants Ways of the Lands of Magic

It is rumoured that the inner mystery, which may be called Rising Into Light, allows the character to create an automaton which allows travel into the Hall of Heroes, or a similar place in the Magic Realm. Some magi say that it allows the Verditus to take the place of one of the cogs in the clockwork of the universe. This is a form of Ascension.