The Family Prospero

Readers have already asked for information about the family for the purpose of putting them into  Roleplaying games. Here is some basic info about the Family Prospero and a few of the other major characters.

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Prospero Family in age order

 

Prospero –White hair and beard, keen eyes, he wears enchanted gold robes with purple trim. Prospero is wise, powerful, and inscrutable. None of his children know what he is actually up to, even those who think they do.

                  The Staff of Eternity

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Miranda – Miranda dresses in a high-collared Edwardian tea dress of emerald satin. She has silver hair in the early part of the story and black hair in the later part, which she wears in a Psyche twist.

                  Miranda is cool and collected and utterly loyal to her father. She does not interact much with the world of men.

                  The Staff of Winds  – four foot long pine flute  

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Mephistopheles – A heartbreakingly handsome youth with warm brown eyes and elfin features. His hair formed a halo of wavy dark curls about his head. He wore a blowsy black Russian shirt and black trousers with high, black, leather boots. Over the black clothes, he had thrown the royal blue surcoat emblazoned with the fleur-de-lis in silver.

                  Mephisto is a zany and lovable guy who most of the time. The rest of the time he is morose and uncommunicative. Once he was the most intelligent and talented of the Prospero’s and the best swordfighter in Christendom. Nobody knows what happened to drive him mad.

                  He also turns into a sapphire-eyed, bat-winged demon with a head full of curling horns, an alternate form which his human self seems to know nothing about.

                  The Staff of Summoning – light wood – figures of winged beings. Medium woods (fruit trees) – figures of animals and beasts, dark woods – dangerous monsters

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Theo –      Dark hair that has been bleached blond at the front and tan skin, except for a raccoon mask of pale skin around his eyes. He wears silvery titanium armor and a breastplate of shining Urim, which he wore over an enchanted gambeson.

                  Theo is the family’s knight in shining armor, the brave daring one who never hesitates to accept a challenge or right a wrong – at least he did not until he abruptly left the family, turned his back on magic, and started aging. He knows more about magic – or at least how to stop magic – than any one else in the family, though he will not admit it.

                  The Staff of Devastation – gleaming length of white metal in two parts 

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Erasmus –Dark hair falling over mocking green eyes and a narrow chin, Erasmus leaned languidly garbed in the garments of a gentleman of the eighteenth century, dark green justacorps and even darker waistcoat, with matching breeches and a silver garter beneath each knee.

                  Erasmus is the intellectual in the family, the alchemist, the scientist, the doctor. He is the one who is most interested in improving the lot of mortal men. He is also the family’s most active magician. He is witty and ascorbic and generally congenial, to everyone except Miranda, whom he hates.

                  The Staff of Decay – rectangle, alternating black and white

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Cornelius –Cornelius wore his purple Orbis Suleimani robes, an eye emblazoned a triangle upon his chest. A matching purple blindfold covered his eyes.

                  Cornelius is the power behind the throne, the lord of the illuminati, the subtle one who quietly runs the world. He is the head of the Orbis Suleimani, the organization that protects humans from the supernatural world.

                  The Staff of Persuasion – blind-man’s cane topped with a large sphere of amber (apple – said to be a scion of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.)

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Titus –      Titus loomed like a Scottish giant, clad in his highland jacket and MacLaren tartan kilt with a lacy jabot collar at his throat.

                  Huge, congenial fellow who likes to work with his hands. He had been a carpenter, a clock-maker, a collier, a farmer, a blacksmith.

                  The Staff of Silence – thick, solid, length of cedar wood with a “Y” at the top (cedar)

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Logistilla –The-high pointed shoulders of her enchanted robes gleamed in the eerie light of her staff. Its long split skirts blew about her, showing glimpses of a pale leg. Her face was oval­-shaped, her nose Roman, and her jet-black hair came to a widow’s peak above her forehead.

                  Logistilla is spiteful and acerbic, even to her friends. She has very little regard for mankind and prefers the company of animals – many of whom she has made herself with her wand. She is a fantastic horse woman, though she hates to be reminded of this by her family.

                  The Staff of Transmogrification – green globe at top held by seven prongs, each carved to look like a different animal: bear, dog, raven, rat, horse, toad, and pig (willow)

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Gregor –   His hair fell to his broad shoulders in a soft black wave, and his black beard had been trimmed close, emphasizing the strength of his chin. His skin was swarthy. His the half-cape of his crimson cardinal’s robes billowed in the wind. his once bulky stature had been replaced by a lithe lean build. While his eyes sill retained their old ferocity, the intensity had been muted by a new reflective introspection. All this gave him the appearance of a sixteenth century priest, or perhaps, a Spanish poet.   

                  Gregor is dead. Before he died, he was a churchman. He had been Pope twice. He disapproved of his family’s magic, but once went vampire hunting with Miranda and Ulysses.

                  The Staff of Darkness – black with red runes (ebony)

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Ulysses –  An impeccably dressed young man in an exquisite dove-gray tuxedo, complete with spats. A matching dove-gray domino mask covered the upper portion of his face revealing pencil mustache and a narrow chin.

                  Ulysses is the happy go lucky family thief. He is younger than the rest and still lives in England. Thus, he has an English accent. Ulysses is a socialite who loves trains and other people’s sparklies – though he often puts them back after he borrows them. He once went to a dinner with Miranda wearing the Hope Diamond.

                  The Staff of Transportation — richly-carved mahogany staff topped with a gleaming star sapphire (mahogany)

Others:

Mab –       Mab slouched, his hands stuck in the pockets of his gray trench coat. He was the granite-faced, hard-boiled type and wore a fedora.  No staff. He carries a lead pipe.

                  Mab is an Aerie One, a supernatural creature made of wind, who merely wears a human-looking body. He has been among humans since the 1920s, when Prospero asked him to become a detective. Before being captured by Prospero, he was Caekias, the Northeast Wind, the most deadly and destructive of all winds.

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Astreus –  His handsome garments were of wolverine and silver fox inset with dark blue enameled leather and slashed with black satin. From his shoulders flowed a mirrored cloak with a tint of deep blue, the feasting guests and candlelight were reflected in its surface. Piercing gray eyes gazed out from beneath hair the color of storm clouds. His features were elfin and aristocratic. Upon his head, where should have sat a crown of stars, was the silver and horn coronet. (His eyes change color.)

                  Astreus is an elf. He is the Lord of the Winds, the elf who represents Mab and his people on the elvish High Counsel. He is capricious and his motives are elfish and unknowable. Once, long ago, he was an angel.

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Unicorn – The lightning bolt formed, for an instant, the outline of a horned equine rearing up on its hind legs. Or,       A dainty creature with four cloven hooves. A spiral horn rose from the center of her brow.

                  The Unicorn, Her Lady of the Spiral Wisdom, the Mother of Us All. Eurynome has many names. Her exact nature is debated among the Prosperos, but all agree that She is a creature of High Heaven.

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Caliban –  A enormous dark-haired man with wide shoulders like a blacksmith, dressed in a flannel shirt, and a pair of new blue jeans. 

                  Caliban is a poetry professor at NYU, a far cry from his brutish youth. He credits Mephisto with having turned him into a gentleman.

            He carries a club. 

 

For more roleplaying ideas, see the page on The Staffs.  Warning: Spoilers!!