As anyone watching the various fora, Durenmar, etc will have spotted, my good friend Angus has questioned the realism of the maintenance of house divisions within the Order. It seems to me that if each of the houses was based more closely on mysteries, initiation rituals and the like, they would be better able to survive as distinct entities.

So...

Let us assume, for the sake of argument, that this was the case. Which mysteries (published or otherwise) would you associate with each house? A few suggestions of my own follow:

Bjornaer: Advanced shapechanging abilities. There is an excellent article of this type in HP2.
Bonisagus: Metamagic feats.
Criamon: Magical imagination, various divination-type mysteries (including astrology), oneiromancy.
Ex Misc: Not really appropriate.
Flambeau: Fire manipulation. Imagine Flambeaux who could take the form of fire elementals! Hmmm - are we sure there is no link between Mazdeism and House Flambeau?
Guernicus: Mind reading abilities.
Jerbiton: Abilities that combine art and magic, magical music, etc etc.
Mercere: Few real magi, who tend to make lots of items for redcaps, so alchemy is probably strong here.
Merinita: Faerie magic. Again, an excellent version is in HP4.
Tremere: Advanced group rituals, Certamen tricks, spirit control mysteries (theurgy).
Tytalus: Abilities affecting emotions, ways to draw power from contention.
Verditius: Alchemy.

What do other people think about this?

Niall

I understand the drive to give each house more magical flavour, flavour that supports the tone we have become accustomed to.

I prefer the mysteries proper as magical lines that cross house divitions. That's not to say that I don't want houses defined in the same way as societies. I think the 5th edition should take advantage of the society model with virtues, initiation rites and ranks. If we can suggest existing or new mysteries that are popular within houses, then so much the better.

I think from your list, the only one I would really contest is Guernicus. I think that mentem style magics are well catered for already in the spell list. I've always thought of divintation style magic being employed behind the hermetic facade.

The Flambaeu idea of fire manipulation could be interesting. Could we generalise that out to some kind of elemental based mystery? Adopting the form of an element, navigating and travelling through an element, and something something something.

The tytalus thing sounds good. Perhaps drawing energy from enslaved thralls and of course empassioned situations sounds great. Real nasty manipulative wizard stuff.

Mark

Take the Verditius, as far as I am concerned a Verditius must seek out the older masters of the craft to raise their special skill. Okay going from 5 to 6 in it is not very exciting, but to the character it is.

So for houses with a strong personality or a specific talant there are still reasons why such a house has maintained its identity.

On the other hand, I accept it is not always clear why a house would maintain its identity. So perhaps that can introduce into saga's as an ongoing plot thing. The collapse or disintegration of various houses could be quite interesting.

When the 5th edition comes into development though, I would like to see whether the mysteries model can be used or improved on to give more reason for a magus maintaining strong links with their house.

So far, unless we go for a pure story angle, magi do not often have the drive to involve themselves in party politics.

For me, the Houses are best thought of as fraternities that do not necessarily correspond with magical aptitude or style. This is obviously always not the case, as currently presented in the 4th Edition (and prior to that). However, I'd like to contend that the divisions amongst the Houses would evolve over time, to the point that traditional characteristics of Magi from each house would become more and more diluted with each generation. Some 'Traditionalist' or historian-styled magi may however take their fraternal roots more seriously.

With the development of secret societies and the multitude of magical practices that has come through supplements, along the Archetypes-Reversing-House-Stereotypes approach of the Medieval Tapestry, et al, I think that a possible new edition could clarify this quite well. In the process, it could distance itself slightly from White-Wolf's 'splat' affiliation system, and yet still allow for loose affiliations that help to define character identity (along with other factors).

So what about a plain-talking Magus of Criamon, who primarily studies Alchemy in a lab? Or a maverick Bonisagus magus who secretly consorts with spirits and demons? etc

I'd like the option to portray great diversity amongst the Houses, so that there are very few binding traits associated with them - practical, philosophical or otherwise.

Similar to roleplayers-- we all like roleplaying, but we all disagree on the best games, best gaming styles, best systems, settings and dice, etc, not to mention non-gaming topics.

~Alex