Pete Woodworth speaks about House Beaumayn
1) "Where did Beaumayn come from?" Yes, the name is derived at least in part from the Arthurian legends. No, that doesn't mean their founder was Lancelot, nor that he was a sidhe of their house for that matter (though rest assured they certainly found his whole "noble knight fated to do wrong" angle interesting and not unsympathetic). Why? Well, I've always liked playing with history and legend a bit, and so I figured it would be a nice treat for those who know their legends and such. Plus, it just sounds neat. ;-)
2) "Why French?" Why not? I don't pretend to be an authoritative scholar on the subject, but even in my amateur research I found that quite a few of the legends and legendary figures that I thought of as typical "English knights-and-ladies" were actually begged/borrowed/stolen from the French (or at least, from the cultures and regions that would eventually become modern France). Not to mention the prominence of France during the Crusades that formed such a large part of the House's history. Throw that in with their natural affiliation with New Orleans in Concordia (French origin, French-speaking, cold iron everywhere) and the fact that I had a contact in France helping me out the entire time (everyone say hello to Dame Lillian, yes she's real), and it was too good to pass up.
3) "What about New Orleans, anyway? Did [Pete] not pay attention to the fact that it was covered in Kingdom of Willows, or what?" There are several answers to this: 1) Ruling the Principality of Jazz doesn't necessarily mean the brothers rule the entire region. I always thought of it more as ruling the cultural heart of the city - Rue Bourbon, Preservation Hall, etc. 2) It's been a while since Kingdom of Willows came out, and if nothing else the BoLH was supposed to throw another change-up at Concordia, so the Beaumayn landed in New Orleans - not coincidentally a heart of shady Unseelie and Thallain activity. (Happy hunting, lads and ladies!
4) "Didn't the Beaumayn brothers appear before, in The Shining Host?" Yep. Caught me there. Brendan was my personal character in the playtest chronicle we played for The Shining Host (the MET book, not the TT one), and has always been a favorite character of mine since. House Beaumayn actually first appeared in that chronicle, as a plot twist right at the very end of the game, and so when Nicky and Jackie approached me about doing a house for BoLH, I can't tell you how much I jumped at the chance to do it and make House Beaumayn "legitimate" at last! (By the way, those of you coming to the LARPs at GenCon this summer just might have a chance to meet Brendan ... keep your eyes open for our blazon. ;)
5) "Aren't the Harbringers of Exodus just Apostate Dauntain?" While their philosophies are quite similar in some respects, the scary part is that the majority of the Harbringers (Vandermere included) are perfectly normal Kithain - their beliefs are certainly twisted, but they show no other signs of being actual Dauntain. Which brings up a bunch of interesting questions, not the least of which being if that means their might not be some truth to their claims ...?
Anyway, sorry for the ten-page rant, but I kept seeing the same questions popping up and so I figured I might be able to help out a bit, so I hope it worked.
"So was it foretold, so shall we uphold!"
Here's some more stuff concerning Beaumayn from the Peter Woodworth:
Well, that depends on a few things. First of all, remember that what the
House was arrested and tried for was the fact that the Harbringers had been
devising unholy rituals and rites with cold iron, which they believed would
send faerie souls to this new paradise. That would imply that not just any
old death with cold iron would really do, but rather only ones inflicted
as
part of specially prepared weapons and ceremonies. At the same time,
neither
myself nor Nicky & Jackie felt it would be a good idea to put in
an example
of such a cold iron ritual, lest the twink monsters get a hold
of it and
start gakking everyone in their game with cold iron right and
left "because
it's part of the ritual."
So here's what I would say to do: if any Beaumayn (or for that matter, any
sidhe in general) just wastes someone with cold iron - no fancy stuff, no
particular ritual to it - give 'em the normal penalty. After all, if it
were
that easy, the Harbringers would've killed off everyone a long time
ago. If,
on the other hand, as part of your chronicle the Harbringers have
actually
managed to unearth some of the old rites and manage to perform
them on some
hapless fae soul, you might want to hold back on the Banality
penalty ... or
at least make it seem like you are to keep your players
scared.
Ultimately, it's up to you and what you want for your game (and how you
want
the question answered regarding the "truth" of Geremin's Heresey,
if you
want to answer it at all) - if you want the Harbringers to come
off as the
hollow, misguided bad guys characters should all think they
are, enforcing
the penalty keeps them from running around whacking people.
On the other
hand, if it doesn't appear to incur such a penalty, then maybe
there's
something to what they say after all ...
Here's some hints for Fostering a Beaumayn through their Fior-Righ:
Fostering: As detailed in a brief passage in the chapter, the Beaumayn are
very practical when it comes to Fostering a young one. The most important
part is the recording of a fledge's past dreams and visions; at least one
of these will always center around a dark star, and it will be one that
the fledge feels is important enough to mention (even if they don't understand
exactly why at the time). After those have been recorded and the fledge
has been Sained into the House, the rest is usually performed in a rather
perfunctory fashion: the fledges are told of the House's history,
Jalendrel's Code, Geremin's Heresy, the Brother's War, the imprisonment and
the Caul of Silence, as well as anything else the mentor feels is necessary,
and then the two typically part company to pursue their own quests.
Fior-Righ: Beaumayn don't put as much stock in this tradition as they used
to; their disillusionment with the Gwydion and some of their fellow Seelie
Houses, while not nearly enough to push them into the Unseelie camp, has
definitely shaken up some of their sense of tradition. However, particularly
when a high-ranking member of the House has returned, a Fior is still
necessary, if only to make sure they are worthy of the title. The Beaumayn
tell their fledges that they are going to hunt and then mock-combat with a
number of fellow House members masked as "Thallain" and other enemies;
however, about halfway through they use intricate illusions to convince the
fledge that some dreadful event has occurred (a portal from the Nightmare
Realms opens, some of the Thallain are real, etc.) and then gauge them on
how they react to this suddenly "real" series of threats. Sometimes they
even let the fledge think the test has ended, then show them a glimpse of
one of their elders as a Thallain or the like, to test their composure and
ability to hunt as opposed to blindly flailing at anything they see. The
test is likewise deliberately rigged to test a Beaumayn's weak areas as
well as their strengths; one well-schooled in the fighting arts might do
well once the actual mock-fighting comes up, but would face a higher number
ofmental puzzles and other non-physical tests as part of the hunt than
would a house member whose physical skills were less than stellar (and
vice versa).
They want well-rounded hunters, sorcerers and scholars, not
war machines who can only hit what's in plain sight; they've fought the
Shadow Court and its Thallain and Denizen allies long enough to know that
hitting the obvious targets seldom does much good.
As for the Caul of Silence, well, when I was discussing it with J&N we kind
of all decided that it was better being more of a nebulous story mechanic
than anything directly translated into game terms - that way, if you wanted
to have House Beaumayn charge directly into the game and the Caul of Silence
tear straight away, then that's OK, you don't need to roll lots of dice
to do so. On other hand, if you wanted to have their return be more mysterious,
you could use the Caul to explain why a House that was banished for its
use of cold iron on innocent victims isn't instantly hunted and killed.
If you *really* need a mechanic, I'd have players sidhe roll Remembrance
(difficulty 6) or commoners roll Gremayre (difficulty 8) to try to recall
details about the Beaumayn and their history, but that's only if you want
to have the Caul be already tearing away. Alternatively, you could allow
members of the House to take the Feth Fiada Background from "The Enchanted"
(and soon Shining Host Player's Guide, for you MET folks) to simulate their
mysterious and hard to track nature. These rob the return of its mystery
a bit, but give you some way to translate their arrival into game terms
if it becomes necessary.
By the by, as a few people have noticed, the Caul of Silence is peculiar
to the Beaumayn, not just for shrouding their arrival, but also in that
- as exemplified by the Beaumayn brothers and Lord Magbane - it meant that
some Beaumayn sidhe were already on Earth well before the other "lost"
Houses returned. They were simply kept unaware of their very heritage by
the Caul ... until, of course, the dark star began to burn and the rest
of the House returned to fight by their sides. It's almost as if it was
all planned, so that some of the House would already be used to the world
and able to help their fellows out when they returned ... hmmm ... ;-)
Peter Woodworth
Head of House Beaumayn
Copyright © 2000, Beau Brown