Character concept: a modern Lady of the Lake

[Mark Rand]

The Lady of the Lake has, in my opinion, always been a cool character. I'd like to bring her into the modern age.

 

She would be a powerful sorceress or priestess of a pagan diety with two cool perks. The first is access to a pocket reality...Avalon. The second is that she is the guardian, and, maybe, occasional wielder, of a wonderous sword...Excalibur.

 

Comments, questions, ideas?

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: Character concept: a modern Lady of the Lake

 

The Lady of the Lake has, in my opinion, always been a cool character. I'd like to bring her into the modern age.

 

She would be a powerful sorceress or priestess of a pagan diety with two cool perks. The first is access to a pocket reality...Avalon. The second is that she is the guardian, and, maybe, occasional wielder, of a wonderous sword...Excalibur.

 

Comments, questions, ideas?

 

Assuming for the moment that you don't have any conflicting backgrounds, I'd work within a mythical-historical background as much as possible.

Something on the order as follows, backstory wise...

 

Somewhere way back when whatever you have going as your Atlantis sunk. Probably part of the same event that caused the Biblical flood. A volcanic archipelago westwards of the British Isles, inhabited by an early migration of bronze age celts, was destroyed in the catastrophy. Isolated from warlike neighbors they were never pressured to enter the Iron age, but rather (influenced no doubt by trade and cultural exchanges with the Atlanteans) turned more towards mystical, philosopical, and spiritual persuits. Warskills carried on as martial sports, highly ritualized contests of athletic skills. When the disaster came, they fled, taking with them their prized artifacts of power (Atlantean tech? Magic? Both? whatever...doesn't really matter) and fleeing in flying ships to the Isles of Sorrow to the east. They landed in Ireland as the power of their ships failed (Magic ebbs away with the destruction of atlantis? Do they run on broadcast power from a now destroyed power source?), defeating the hostile natives and establishing a land in exile. Over the time that followed, they spread, in smaller numbers, across the british isles.

Over the time that followed, the original refuges were displaced by waves of invasions, and in order to protect the Treasures of the Goddess and prevet their power from falling into the wrong hands, they used a large portion of the powers available to them to withdraw to a slightly higher plane of reality, one ALMOST in sync with our own, but slightly different...the spirits of things are more visible, and the strength of association is enough to form physical subtance in some case. It was chosen because "echo" of their lost islands still had substance in this place, given strength by the long memories of their people. Knowing that the allies, children and invaders they were leaving may some day face dark powers that would threaten the world, some of the most powerful used their powers to force themselves back in sync with reality from time to time, training a variety of people over the centuries in the methods to contact them, manipulate the "Otherword" and journey there. The reputation of the isles are places of magic is largely a legacy of this, in much the same way as the Celtic Cult of the Head (the Milesaen invaders who displaced the Tuatha De'Dannan didn't totally "Get" the whole "reverence for the Mind" thing) and the formal Contests of Champions and Tailetian Games are all cultural artifacts from the De'Dannan culture.

 

Avalon, the Isle of Mists, was chosen to store the Treasures and was moved yet again, to the edge of the land of dreams, where the misty of dreams hides the power of the artifacts. Periodically the weapons are brought forth into the world of man when they are needed. The Lady of the Lake is one such pupil, a priestess who has been trained to find Avalon if another such time of need arises.

Excalibur is most likely a Romanization of the original Silver Sword of Nuada, which no substance could resist, and is one of the Four Great Treasures of Danu.

The others are

The Sun Spear of Lugh, the Gae bulga, last entered the mortal world in the hands of Cuchulainn, which thirsts for blood, never misses, and burns with an unquenchable heat for battle.

 

The Undry, the cauldron of inspiration, is many things.... a wellspring of poetic inspiration, a portal to the underworld, an endless supply of meat, and a tool to bring the dead back to life as unslayable automatons. Probably a dimensional portal of some sort.

 

The Lia Fail, the stone of ruleship, which sings forth when the rightful high king takes his place atop it. It was lost from Avalon around the Jacobite period, when a well intentioned but ultimately unsuccessful Lady of the Lake tried to restore the Scottish royal line. Its present whereabouts are unknown, and it is rumored that the Stone was shattered, and that the peices have found their way into the hands of some very interesting places and people (The Skulls, for instance, are rumored to have a peice, any of which can be used to raise the PRE of the person who has been attuned to the crystal).

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Character concept: a modern Lady of the Lake

 

"She says she's willing to exchange Excalibur for a really big towel."

[Mark Rand]

Re: Character concept: a modern Lady of the Lake

 

This is what I have in mind. There is a tie-in between it and the old Marvel UK book Knights of Pendragon.

 

In the early days, Britain had many holy places. The most holy was, depending upon who you talked to, either a loch or a lake that could access Avalon. A temple was built nearby. The priestesses were known as the Ladies of Avalon. The high priestess was either the Lady of the Loch or the Lady of the Lake.

 

In the fifth century a Roman cavalry officer named Ambrosius Aurelianus was ordered to take his men north of Hadrian's Wall to rescue a priest. An imoprtant bishop went with them. When they did, they found the priest harming the populace because they wouldn't follow Christianity, Ambrosius was angry.

 

He was even angrier when the bishop approved what the priest had done. Deciding he had seen enough, Ambrosius freed the locals and gathered everyone together. A surprise attack by a war band ended the lives of the priest and bishop. The Roman troops and the locals, or Picts, fought back.

 

Ambrosius noted with surprise that the women and clergy were among the Picts that were fighting and that Vivianne, the Lady of the Lake, had two swords with her, but used only one. "The other is a spare, in case someone needs it," was the reason she gave for carrying the other.

 

to be continued.

[Certified]

Re: Character concept: a modern Lady of the Lake

 

And suddenly I remember the Upright Citizens Brigade...

[Mark Rand]

Re: Character concept: a modern Lady of the Lake

 

We continue.

 

When it was over, the returned south of Hadrian's Wall and ran into Saxon invaders. When the war with them ended, Ambrosius was proclaimed king. As his queen, he chose the bravest of the female warriors, Gwenhwyvar, the daughter of Talison, a bard and Merlin, or Arch-Druid, of Britain. They ruled from a wooden fort atop Cadbury Hill. When they died, the Green Knight, an aspect of the Green Man, asked their souls to assist him in serving mankind. They accepted.

 

In time, the tale changed. Ambrosius became Arthur, an English king. Gwenhwyvar became Guinevere. Her right to take any man she chose as a lover became aan adulterous affair. Talison became two people, Talison the Bard and Merlin the Magician. Their wooden fort became a wonderful stone castle known as Camelot.

 

this portion to be concluded next

[Mark Rand]

Re: Character concept: a modern Lady of the Lake

 

In the 11th century, England was in turmoil. A young man accended to the throne and began to bring peace to the land. As it happened, his name was Arthur and his equally-young queen was Guinevere. Their stone castle was Camelot and Merlin was the king's royal advisor.

 

Morgaine, Arthur's half-sister, was the Lady of the Lake. Like Arthur, Guinevere, and Merlin, she was a Pendragon host. Modred is the result of a coupling, during Beltane, by Arthur and Morgaine. He was raised by Morgause, Arthur and Morgaine's power-hungry aunt, who may have been the host to a Bane, a demonic servant of the Red Lord.

 

Throughout the world, in times of trouble, the Pendragons are reawakened. When they power up, the posess great physical gifts, can detect the Bane, and have exceptional fighting skills.

 

The new Lady of the Lake is one of them.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Character concept: a modern Lady of the Lake

 

I just came up with another perk for the Lady of the Lake. She's also the guardian of a plain-looking wooden cup... The Holy Grail.

[Ghost Archer]

Re: Character concept: a modern Lady of the Lake

 

Insert 'watery tart' comment here.

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: Character concept: a modern Lady of the Lake

 

Lady of the Lake

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_of_the_Lake

 

 

But, I like your better AmadanNaBriona

 

QM

[Mark Rand]

Re: Character concept: a modern Lady of the Lake

 

Assuming for the moment that you don't have any conflicting backgrounds, I'd work within a mythical-historical background as much as possible.

Something on the order as follows, backstory wise...

 

Somewhere way back when whatever you have going as your Atlantis sunk. Probably part of the same event that caused the Biblical flood. A volcanic archipelago westwards of the British Isles, inhabited by an early migration of bronze age celts, was destroyed in the catastrophy. Isolated from warlike neighbors they were never pressured to enter the Iron age, but rather (influenced no doubt by trade and cultural exchanges with the Atlanteans) turned more towards mystical, philosopical, and spiritual persuits. Warskills carried on as martial sports, highly ritualized contests of athletic skills. When the disaster came, they fled, taking with them their prized artifacts of power (Atlantean tech? Magic? Both? whatever...doesn't really matter) and fleeing in flying ships to the Isles of Sorrow to the east. They landed in Ireland as the power of their ships failed (Magic ebbs away with the destruction of atlantis? Do they run on broadcast power from a now destroyed power source?), defeating the hostile natives and establishing a land in exile. Over the time that followed, they spread, in smaller numbers, across the british isles.

Over the time that followed, the original refuges were displaced by waves of invasions, and in order to protect the Treasures of the Goddess and prevet their power from falling into the wrong hands, they used a large portion of the powers available to them to withdraw to a slightly higher plane of reality, one ALMOST in sync with our own, but slightly different...the spirits of things are more visible, and the strength of association is enough to form physical subtance in some case. It was chosen because "echo" of their lost islands still had substance in this place, given strength by the long memories of their people. Knowing that the allies, children and invaders they were leaving may some day face dark powers that would threaten the world, some of the most powerful used their powers to force themselves back in sync with reality from time to time, training a variety of people over the centuries in the methods to contact them, manipulate the "Otherword" and journey there. The reputation of the isles are places of magic is largely a legacy of this, in much the same way as the Celtic Cult of the Head (the Milesaen invaders who displaced the Tuatha De'Dannan didn't totally "Get" the whole "reverence for the Mind" thing) and the formal Contests of Champions and Tailetian Games are all cultural artifacts from the De'Dannan culture.

 

Avalon, the Isle of Mists, was chosen to store the Treasures and was moved yet again, to the edge of the land of dreams, where the misty of dreams hides the power of the artifacts. Periodically the weapons are brought forth into the world of man when they are needed. The Lady of the Lake is one such pupil, a priestess who has been trained to find Avalon if another such time of need arises.

Excalibur is most likely a Romanization of the original Silver Sword of Nuada, which no substance could resist, and is one of the Four Great Treasures of Danu.

The others are

The Sun Spear of Lugh, the Gae bulga, last entered the mortal world in the hands of Cuchulainn, which thirsts for blood, never misses, and burns with an unquenchable heat for battle.

 

The Undry, the cauldron of inspiration, is many things.... a wellspring of poetic inspiration, a portal to the underworld, an endless supply of meat, and a tool to bring the dead back to life as unslayable automatons. Probably a dimensional portal of some sort.

 

The Lia Fail, the stone of ruleship, which sings forth when the rightful high king takes his place atop it. It was lost from Avalon around the Jacobite period, when a well intentioned but ultimately unsuccessful Lady of the Lake tried to restore the Scottish royal line. Its present whereabouts are unknown, and it is rumored that the Stone was shattered, and that the peices have found their way into the hands of some very interesting places and people (The Skulls, for instance, are rumored to have a peice, any of which can be used to raise the PRE of the person who has been attuned to the crystal).

 

Come to think of it, this is a lot better than the background I came up with.

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: Character concept: a modern Lady of the Lake

 

Come to think of it' date=' this is a lot better than the background I came up with.[/quote']

Thanks!

I'm a past master at mashing mythology into a paste and using it to form a new idea from dispatrate parts.

 

I think attempting to reconcile the 5th century Arthur, based on welsh myth, and the 11th century french romantic Arthur, based on Mallory, is going to end up confusing things. I like the idea of an overall Enemy (the Bane). My reasoning for using the Tuatha De Danna for background is the obvious links with the Children of Don, who are the Welsh equivilants. I'd probably use the 5th century Arthur as a historical figure and founder of the Arthurian myths as the Welsh version from the Mabinogion (I'd explain the resurgance of the tales during the 11th C. as a result of the actions of Merlin or Taliesin returned). A key event in Arthurs reign was the removal of Bran the Blessed's head from it's resting place, ever vigilant, beneath London, where it was laid so his magic could guard the isles from invasion. This could have been the act that led to the "first" recorded intervention from Avalon into mortal affairs, as untilthat point their actions would have been proactive rather than reactive, but after that arrogant young roman-ized Pendragon decided he could hold England by the might of arms rather than the protections of magic. The Formorians of early Irish legend, "Demons of chaos and Old night". in some ways fit the description of some of the mythic period Norse legends, and could be "backed" by the Bane (If there is a "weak place" in the world in Northerrn Europe where the bane's influence is strong, it could provide a motive for The Formori, the later Saxon Invasion, and possibly even some of the later bits of chaos... The 30 Years War that decimated Europe and both World Wars all started in the same general region).

 

The Grail legend is usually considered a Christian Monastic re-invention of the Welsh tales regarding the Caulron of Inspiration and Ressurection, which might be the same culron featured in the Bran tales (and thus might be sundered, or it may have been "reforged")

 

The 11th Century is an important time, as you've determined, as it DOES have many inverted parallels with the 5th. The Norman french under William defeat the Saxons, whose invasion culminated the end of Arthurs reign. Strongbow invades Ireland, but he and his lords go native VERY quickly... suspiciously so. The Norman invasion also marks the conquest of Wales. As Lancelot and Viviane are both norman-french additions to the legend, they could easily be the Avalon-backed hero and annointed Lady of the Lake of the period.

 

 

Speaking of which ... this leads to the obvious question.... What did Avalon do, and who was the chosen champion during WW2? The beginning of a Golden Age Hero, perhaps? An early 17th century option might be Donald Dubh MacKay, who led the MacKay regiment during the 30 Years War. His men became known as the Invincible Scots because they took the van for Christian the 4th and later Gustavus Adolphus and consistantly whooped major amounts of butt... possibly Avalon finally taking a hand to try and end the war that was literally destroying continental civilization?

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: Character concept: a modern Lady of the Lake

 

I realized that some of this is reminding me of bits of "Prince Ombra", which I suppose is next to impossible if one is trying to track the Pendragon myth into the modern era.

 

Hmm.... gotta watch that.

[Great Beyond]

Re: Character concept: a modern Lady of the Lake

 

*casts necormancy spell*

 

So has anyone ever put together the numbers for Excalibur? I was thinking of doing a game where a Cobra-ish paramilitary terrorist orginization gets their hands on Excalibur and tries to seize control of the English government, and need to figure out the capabilities of the sword.

 

I imagine that it would come with all kinds of PRE modifications ("That's right, whos the King now?") and some wicked killing attack dice. But instead of reinventing the wheel, I thought I'd ask the peanut gallery.

 

Anyone ever stat this thing out?

[zaras]

Re: Character concept: a modern Lady of the Lake

 

*Pumps shotgun and looks around warily for Zombies*

 

Modern Lady of the Lake? Must have life support: immunity to toxins at least

 

On a more serious note have her as CEO of a major, legitimate, global arms dealer.

[Rage]

Re: Character concept: a modern Lady of the Lake

 

You could make her the blue lady from that Urban legend those Miami homeless children have.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Character concept: a modern Lady of the Lake

 

I had in mind a teenage Lady of the Lake.

 

One day, she makes the motions she saw herself making the night before in a vivid dream and finds herself on the Isle of Avalon. She spends three years there, but returns home the same afternoon, looking as she did the earlier that day.

 

When she wills it, a ring, pendant, and two wide metal bracelets appear, along with a blue "U"-shaped tattoo in her forehead.

[Kelcyron]

Re: Character concept: a modern Lady of the Lake

 

So has anyone ever put together the numbers for Excalibur? I was thinking of doing a game where a Cobra-ish paramilitary terrorist orginization gets their hands on Excalibur and tries to seize control of the English government, and need to figure out the capabilities of the sword.

 

 

This was actually done in the TV series. The Joes were setting up a radar station in England and Storm Shadow found Excalibur.

 

Kelcyron

[Great Beyond]

Re: Character concept: a modern Lady of the Lake

 

Oh man - I remember that one from ages and ages ago. Jeeze, Stormshadow is bad assed enough. Give him a superweapon like Excalibur and he'll be over the top (well, at least until minute 19, when the Joes beat down Cobra just in time for the PSA.)

 

I'll have to go dig out my DVDs and watch it again, see if there's any good ideas to mine for my game.