Character Generation

• Each player should create one mage. At this point companions and grogs are optional and should be designed to fit with the covenant or a mage rather than having their own paths. No Mythic Companions, nor Gifted Companions, nor non-Gifted hedge magi.
  
• Canonical simple character generation rules are used.
  
• No starting character may have Might.
  
• To make things easier to build and adjudicate, magi in House ex Miscellanea should use a canonical tradition/group (either non-Hermetic or a tradition with Hermetic magic). Meanwhile, Virtues and Flaws should mostly be core, from Apprentices, from Grogs, or from a HoH book. It is possible, but unlikely, Virtues or Flaws from other sources will be allowed; that will be on an individual basis. Other things can be available once the game starts, such as through initiations.
  
• All magi may select a Certamen school, as covered in Houses of Hermes: True Lineages.
  
• Custom spells are encouraged.
  
• You may start with reasonable items for your station, regardless of it being printed in a book or not, but nothing of any sort of exceptional quality unless you spent the time in your extra years to make the items yourself.
  
• Consider your "dowry." Your character is responsible for some of the covenant resources arriving. This could be via a deal made, support of a house or gild, acquired during post-gauntlet years, etc. You should make a decision about the source of yours, but you don't need to worry about what those resources are.
  
• Magi coming out of apprenticeship should generally have scores of at least 1 in Artes Liberales, Concentration, Finesse, Organization Lore: Order of Hermes; Organization Lore: (the covenant you were trained at), Penetration, Profession: Scribe; exactly 1 in Parma Magica; at least 3 in Magic Theory; and at least 4 in Language: Latin. Lower scores are permissible, but there should be a clear reason, such as a Gifted Mercere spending too much time traveling to get to know the covenant well.
  
• When finishing the gauntlet, magi should be in the ballpark of 23-30 years old, but this may be adjusted with a clear reason such as a very late emergence of the Gift.
  
• If you choose a canonical mage as your parens, feel free to adjust things very slightly to make it work. For instance, maybe you need to bump up a couple Arts a little to hit 5 or you need to make them slightly older. Try to keep things as close to written as possible while allowing for your apprenticeship to fit.
  
• You may advance magi up to 3 years post gauntlet. For simplicity, use the core rules. Nothing that requires any adjudication (e.g. Familiars, Initiations, really special materials for Talismans) can be done. It is assumed the core rules take into account things like lab texts, summas, etc. already.