The Cat

[Astelle_Mwwr]

Okay, so I am personally in love with anything cat-like, so of course I would LOVE to see a house of the Cat being played. So what is something that a cat would have as a Virtue? Well, _I_ think grace is a Virtue, and anyone who obsessively watches cats can tell you they are great at seeming to do one thing (rubbing against you) while actually doing another (puking on your foot). So I think it would fit for the House of the Cat to be able to fool people into believing they are doing one thing while they do another (using an aspect and using their Virtue to hide the fact that they're using that aspect.) Obviously this opens up the reason why the House of the Cat was Veiled. They're even HARDER to trust then other Ven and way too effective as assassins, so they were stamped out before they could stamp out the other houses. Just a thought, but feel free to tell me what you think.

[Aban the White Stag]

I like the idea of the covering up the Aspect you're using, though I'd like to see how it works first hand.

[Keith Fyans]

When it comes to the Veiled Houses I like the idea that the Virtues they hold as most sacred are things that we, in the modern day, see as Virtuous and something to uphold while the Ven found them something to drag low and shame. The Horse uphold the Virtue of Service, while it has been hinted that one veiled house held the Virtue of Patience. What Virtue would the Cat uphold that could bring them Low in Ven society?

I'd also against caution confusing our societies idea of what a Cat embodies with how the Ven treated them... (Pg 28-29 of the Rulebook may be your friend here).

[Astelle_Mwwr]

Well if you go too literally with the values, cats would be even better at sorcery than Serpents...hmmm, although you may have a point with the Virtue. Curiosity would be obvious here. Perhaps the Cats were able to use curiosity to find their OWN magic which would definately upset the Ven. Probably one that (gasp) does NOT involve draining blood from your victims! I think Cats will end up being a rather collaborative effort to pin down. As for Curiosity...it REALLY sounds like a gentler cousin to Wisdom so not sure how to make it different enough to actually work

[Astelle_Mwwr]

Patience is definitely Spider, and at a guess I'd say Boar is Memory although no idea how THAT would play out... I think curiosity in the Cat sense is all about being able to see things behind the veil. Maybe the virtue allows the Ven to investigate spiritual connections with this gift, which would make them naturals as priests and ghost hunters. Perhaps they can use their virtue when they make a risk involving Suaven and Devotions?

[wunderworks]

I want to share, but cannot regarding certain things.

From what the main book says about Cats I wouldn't say that they'd be better at sorcery, just better at manipulating/seeing the Invisible World - so maybe dealing with Spectres, Suaven, etc..

[Astelle_Mwwr]

Well the only reason I say that is here - The ven also believed cats
had sorcery of their own. Disappearing at
will, passing through doors, charming those
with weak minds. Such is the mind of a ven:
full of superstition and nonsense.

I think that would be a neat thing to add as a ranked mechanic. Level one is simple little tricks of the mind, passing through walls would be around rank 5.

[Astelle_Mwwr]

And I had another thought regarding Curiosity...Perhaps it allows the cat to show OTHER Ven something that is hidden. Something along the lines of "Doesn't that shadow in the corner of your castle look a LOT like a secret entrance that you may want to deal with?" It would provide the perfect reason for Elk AND Serpents to act against the house. "Hey, stop revealing secrets to the people we were going to use them against!!! Bad cat, go into the veiled corner!!"

[Nihilistic Mind]

Perhaps it allows the cat to show OTHER Ven something that is hidden.

THAT would be very cool...

[Astelle_Mwwr]

Okay, so then just for amusement... The House of the Cat, and particularly the EARL of the House of the Cat, revealed to a very high ranking Fox that they had a hole in their security and other Ven were using it to rob that Ven blind. This was the last straw for the Serpents, who had been selling this information to the highest bidder as well as other breaches in defense that the cat House had already revealed. Gathering their own might plus the might of the Elks, who were usually the buyers of the secrets Serpents were gathering, they hatched a plan to make it look like the CATS had been putting holes in everyone's defenses just so they could garner favors in a bid to take over the Senate. Faced with such might, the cats had no true defense and were rounded up, their house veiled, and in the Senate 50 cats were put to death! Oddly enough...only 35 bodies were counted, but no-one seemed to pay that too much mind.

So the Virtue would be Curiosity, which is usable in risks to reveal secrets to others, and it's POSSIBLE there is a magic available to the cats called Sorcery of the Veil. There are 5 ranks to the Sorcery of the Veil. Rank 1 is the hypnotic stare, which allows a Cat to make a Ven forget one recent event. Rank 2 allows a Ven to peer through the veil and see the influence of spirits and Suaven (Including blessings and wraths) Rank 3 allows the Ven to plant a suggestion into another Ven's mind that the Ven then thinks was their own (in retrospect the Earl should have used that to give the Fox the information, but hindsight is 20/20). At Rank 4 the Ven can "skip the veil" and slip through an obstacle that at least has one small opening in it. At Rank 5, the Cat is able to actually slip through the veil and into the spirit world for a short journey, effectively disappearing from Shanri, but navigating a realm that may be just as treacherous or more...after all, Suaven and malicious spirits live here (random truths about their journey might be placed on the cat to simulate their perils).

Just random thoughts, but feel free to twist it on it's head. I love the exercise!