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Yes, it does, but I think you're fixing it.



In my personal opinion, not right now, no. But again, you say you're fixing it, so I'll come back later to see if my opinion has changed.



Not a current quest, no. But there is a certain Fa'e it does remind me of.

Well, the whole "general magic" thing reminds me a lot of Mordath, who is the Fa'e's Arch-Magus (I think that's the word Sabin used). With the general magic thing, she's a bit on the too powerful side. With Mordath, his power relies on the magic he learns and the shadowmancy he has. And that's all he can do.

That kinda make sense?

Yes, that makes sense. But, in my opinion, the "general magic" thing makes her too powerful. I can understand where you're coming from. In an RPG sense, she's a support character. Someone in the back to cast shields and raise stats. Yes, I understand that. I think that if that's the way you want to go, you can base her abilities around being a support-type character like anyone in an RPG would be. It would help a lot in people's understanding of your character. Right now, to many people, she's far too powerful. Kinda make sense?

Callix, to me, would be a support-based character in an RPG as well, though his magics are strictly self-based (or result in a benefit only he can reap.) I used only magics or abilites tied strictly to the mythbase, and deleted several that were too powerful (such as the ability to animate/possess corpses and telekinesis). Restrictions are good, not bad. Overly powerful characters are hellaciously boring, and irritating to the point where some people cannot stand the character.

I'm not trying to do a critique. I'm just trying to give suggestions so that you can ease into fleshing her out more, and making her much more easily understandable to readers.

Being a dark beauty, yes, that's interesting. Expand on that. Tell us what she looks like in your head to the best of your ability. If at any point you need help with something, someone is bound to help you. You could make a list of the powers a Leanan Sidhe would have, and go through them, one by one, and eliminate ones that are too powerful. Having a super specialization can be interesting, and very fun to RP.

Well, in the last couple days I have come up with another possibility on the powers that I think works better. The two phrases "Inspiration personified" and "Poetry in motion" keep coming to mind to describe her. So, I'm posting this to get some feedback.


It's ALL inspiration based, except for the otherworld power.
The closer to fully inspiring the intent is, the less likely it will work. That is, the more she lets the persons mind do, the less she does, and the easier it is for her to do. Give a person an edge of fear, and let their mind create beasts in the shadows and noises from behind them.

Bardic Magic:
*Inspire: Like the ability of bards in any world where they have magic, she can influence the minds of others. For her it is through the poetic nature of speech, music or actions. A bard can help people remember those thinks for which they are fighting, or doing whatever, by singing, speaking or playing music. Her intention to try to inspire people to do something, or feel something, calls this power into use, but it only influences the mind. A strong willed person could push aside the effects to frighten them. Magic would also be able to hinder or stop this power.

(This means that she has to actually do something to inspire others instead of people randomly being inspired around her. I chose this because bards come up in the myth.)



*Presence
This is like stage presence. This is the power that makes her the good luck charm. She doesn't need to really do anything besides be a part of the group and things go better. This isn't very powerful, but a well timed smile can make somebodies day. With this she can be the little bit of sunshine on those cloudy days, or that reminder of hope in dark times.

It isn't always working. This power is like a unfocused version of the bardic ability. Like a leader who when in the sight of the people they lead has a commanding, or heroic, presence, it isn't always there. In his office, talking to his second in command and advisers, he comes across as a normal guy with a lot resting on his shoulders.

Otherworld:
Ya, this is the ability to go to the "otherworld" like the sidhe are known to have in the myths and legends. This is the same as in the previous idea. I think that version works well as it is, so please refer to the previous post for this power's description.

I'd say this should work to explain her powers enough to work with. It is also limited in what and how she can use her powers. I may be editing this, but now I am going to focus on other parts of this thread.

Otherworld / Fey world / Spirit world or plane- This is the ability to go into the fey world. That's it. Magically taxing, and possibly physically detrimental, this power is something she eventually will gain. Once she can do it on purpose in a calm environment, she will start to figure out how to take others with her. As an ancient I would expect her to be able to take people to and from the fey world without a problem, but not till then. Even as an ancient she would only be able to take a small group, maybe five people, due to the one-to-one nature of the leanan sidhe.

(This is something that could be impressive, but isn't as great as it sounds. She could go faster in the fey version of a pleasant wood, but be put in danger in the fey version of a haunted wood. Buildings don't really block the way, but they do slow down movement. Also, things that would stop spirits, ghosts, ghouls and other such things would stop her while traveling in this manner. It's not that she is somewhere else, but really that she isn't physically there. A normal sword would miss, but a anti-ghost/spirit sword would still hurt her. It is like a spirit form, or crossing invisibility and being insubstantial. In a world with few who deal with spirits and ghosts this would be insane, but in Gaia? No, I don't see this as such a astounding power with magical protections, attack spells, bindings, summoning, transporting and anti-"you-name-it" weapons and such. Then you can add the fact that if she doesn't have the strength, she can't get back.)

Inspiration-

*Unintentional:
This is the first power she gets. Weak at first, and stronger as she gets older, this power is like a aura or having presence. For a human it might be considered like being "in the zone" for a sports player or stage presence for a performer. When this power is active, she does better and can be inspiring to others.

Examples:
1) Maybe the group of defenders she's with are disheartened by the fighting so far, or the odds of winning. When inspiration hits her, she might take the lead in the initial charge, and quickly fall back after the others catch up and pass her, or give a rousing speech that gets the fighters ready to fight.

2) As a teen she might be making pieces of art. Most of it is at least okay, but one or two pieces will far surpass the others in skill. While working on those pieces she might seem obsessed with creating the art, but the results are worth it. Unfortunately this means that only sometimes will she be great while people think that she just isn't really trying most of the time.

*Intentional:
She can influence and guide the power of inspiration when she gets older and more experienced with it. This would be after finding out who and what she is, and what she used to be.

Examples:
1) The same fighters and situation from the previous example 1, but instead of inspiration hitting her, she wants to do something. Her desire to help triggers the power to inspire. Here though, if she wanted to give a rousing speech, it would be less effective since she would be more specific in her desire. Where as if she just wanted to help and was inspired to speak, she would be more effective in her speech. All this doesn't take into account how the individuals would react, just that she would have a better speech if she is less specific.

2)With the art, the couple fantastic pieces would most likely be ones that she didn't have a real goal in mind, but just worked with what happened. The more specific her idea, the more likely there would just be inspired spots in the piece that are really good, but the whole piece wouldn't be great.

*Magic:
She doesn't cast magic in the same way that others do. Most command or request something be done by the power within or without. She inspires and influences power that exists to do things, but the more specific she is, the harder for her to perform. Also, the power used to inspire and influence the magic draws power from her to perform these feats, instead of just inspiring. As a child, she would have little power, and could only do magic if taught and the environment is suitable for her type of magic. As a teen, she would have some more power, but still require being taught. By the time she is a youth, I would expect that she either would have started to learn, or not ever get to it.

~Note: The intentional inspiring affects the living, but the magic doesn't do so in the same way. The magic could do things like use the unintentional inspiration to scare something off, or get things to be more friendly, but if the target is intelligent she would be using the intentional inspiration like a bard would use their talents. So, living things would be dealt with by using the presence while the true magic would be like nudging the power to do what she wants. Like the other inspiration powers though, the more specific she is, the harder it is to do. In this case, it is also more taxing.

~Note 2: For actually performing magic, think of it like this. She is politely asking, instead of commanding, so not only are the effects less predictable, but they are also smaller.

Examples:



Basically she can get the body to focus on the trouble spots and get the body to try harder, but it takes a lot of time and effort on her part just too deal with normal wounds, due to how specific she is. The easiest healing for her to do is to get the body to focus on healing and feeling better. It already tries to do that, and that is not very specific in intent.


Simply put, She can use Celtic knot work to anchor a "spell". This results in charms and lasting enchantments. Here are the basic rules for how this works:
->The more compatible the intended meaning of the knot with the "spell" being anchored, the longer and better it will work, such as a shield knot being used to anchor protective "spells".

->To anchor more than one spell requires one line for each spell. (Can be used for things like a few mages casting weak shields, weaving those spells together to make one stronger shield.

->If the knot is messed up, the anchoring effect fails.

Also, she can inspire feelings such as fear, courage, calm and lust. This can be combined with a filtering spell, usually someone else's, to make ward, charms and such to affect specific kinds of beings. If she makes the filtering spell, it would be either, not humanoid or specific races.


Basically it's the same as with inspiring people, only using magic to actually increase and supplement abilities for creatures and inanimate objects.