Marius
Cherub Master of Finances
Angel of Salt
Corporeal Forces: 6 Strength:
12 Agility: 12
Ethereal Forces: 4 Intelligence:
10 Precision: 6
Celestial Forces: 5 Will:
12 Perception:
8
Word-Forces: 12
Vessel: slight human male/6, +1 Charisma
Skills: Area Knowledge (Quite a few/3), Chemistry/6,
Dodge/6, Emote/3, Engineering/1, Fighting/6, Knowledge (Economics/3,
Philosophy/1, Politics/3), Languages (quite a few/3), Large Weapon (Sword/4,
Spear/4), Move Silently/5, Ranged Weapon (Spear/4, shotgun/4), Savoir-Faire,
Survival (Desert/3), Tactics/5
Songs: Entropy (Ethereal/2, Celestial/3), Fire
(Corporeal/1), Healing (Corporeal/6, Ethereal/1, Celestial/1), Ice
(Corporeal/1), Might (Corporeal/3), Nightmares (Ethereal/3), Retribution
(Corporeal/1), Shattering (Celestial/6), Shields (All/3), Tongues (Corporeal/1)
Attunements: Cherubim of Trade, Elohite of Trade,
Malakite of Trade, Cherub of Stone, Divine Contract, Master of Finances, Angel
of Salt
Angel of Salt:
Marius can leech out the salt content of any substance. Generally, this will result in him being
able to accumulate up to a pound of salt every five minutes; purify (Corporeal
Forces lbs) worth of water within the same amount of time; or cause 2 extra
points of damage in any barehanded attack (which immediately heals back if the
target is given back the lost salt).
Marius sometimes gives out one of these abilities as a Servitor
Attunement.
Rites:
: Spend three hours making salt (useable twice per
day).
: Teach someone how to make salt.
Salt is one of those words with history
behind it. It's always been Trade's,
and the unique nature of the duties associated with it are such that its
history is relatively full of the names of those angels that bravely held the
Word and bravely gave up their lives for it.
Marius is merely the latest angel to be given the honor.
Some might be surprised to find out that such an
innocuous-looking Word could be so fraught with danger. Well, the Word of Salt is one of those
deceptively simple-looking concepts.
Prior to refrigeration, it was about the only decent preservative
available. That doesn't necessarily
concern Marc... but the way that it universally became a commodity did. Governments routinely made its production
and sale a monopoly, with all the effects on commerce and politics that such an
action implied. Battles have been
fought and wars declared over salt; state monopolies of the substance were
factors in both the French Revolution and Gandhi's civil disobedience campaign,
not too mention innumerable Chinese peasant revolts. In short, the stuff's on the metaphorical front lines of any
number of campaigns that Trade is interested in, and the holder of its Word had
best be ready to act accordingly. It's
a tough tradition to live up to.
Fortunately, Cherubim are created tough and just
keep getting tougher as they go. Marius
is plenty tough enough for the job; two thousand years hasn't killed him yet,
after all. Indeed, the last century or
so has almost been child's play, compared to the previous nineteen. This artificial refrigeration thing is
amazing, no? The Cherub suspects that
he may lose a Word-Force or two if current technological progress continues,
but is remarkably calm about that for a Word-Bound (and almost unbelievably
calm for a Cherubic Word-Bound).
From his point of view, his Word is most immediately useful among the
extremely poor; becoming weaker because peoples and cultures have gotten
wealthy enough to afford better methods seems an acceptable Trade. Besides, humans need salt to stay alive:
Marius doesn't expect to go down too far in power.
These days, Marius mostly works in the
aforementioned extremely poor areas of the world, generally working on local
economic infrastructures. Unlike many
members of Trade, he has no especial trouble with Servitors of Stone, probably
because his work puts him in constant contact with them in various venues - and
because, really, Marius is often mistaken for one on first glance. When combined with an inexperienced demon,
or one prone to making assumptions, this can result in very humorous situations
(humorous for Marius, at least).
Aside from such amusements, Marius is actually a fairly mellow sort: as mentioned earlier, Salt's importance is apparently going to be readjusting itself slightly downward, and in an odd sort of way, the sensation is a bit of a relief. It's been a busy two millennia, after all: being able to catch one's metaphorical breath is fairly nice, especially since it gives him the opportunity to update himself a bit. No real time beforehand, but now he can justify some catching up. He's also in the process of changing his outlook from being a direct-action sort of angel to being someone a little bit subtler. It's the modern era, after all: spitting a monopolist on a spear gets one talked about.