====== Player's Guide ======

A few years ago there was a D&D campaign setting called //Midnight//, which was set in a fantasy world after the Dark Lord had won and all were enslaved to his will. It was an interesting setting, but I never got to play or run it, partly because as a gaming group we're not that fond of D&D. However, I did think that it might work well with //Ars Magica//.

Though it started with the players (newly out of apprenticeship) hiding in the cellars of their covenant as it was destroyed by Demons, a few re-workings of the story made me decide that it would be better to start in the prologue, at a time before the rise of the Shadow, in order to show what happened, rather than just tell it as back story.

This is where this campaign begins, in a version of //Mythic Europe// not too dissimilar to canon. At some point though there will be an upheaval (though it wouldn't be the first time that a campaign of mine has finished before the prologue has ended), so players should be aware not to build characters that won't fit well into a more turbulent (and possibly mobile) setting than you might normally expect.

As far as their characters are concerned though, //The Midnight Saga// does not threaten any big changes or deviations from the standard Ars Magica canon. It begins at [[midnight/stonehenge/Cruentis Petram]], in the Stonehenge Tribunal in 1221.


===== The Basics =====

==== Resources ====

Some useful game aids.

  * [[http://www.atlas-games.com/pdf_storage/ArM5Charsheet-NEW.pdf|Character Sheet]]
  * [[http://spellswiki.wikidot.com/|The Net Wizard's Grimoire]] - These will need to be validated before taking them.

==== Deviations and Clarifications =====

The saga is using **Ars Magica 5th Edition**, with a few minor differences.

{{indexmenu>/players}}

==== Player Characters ====

=== Magi ===

  * Columbanus ex Guernicus, a Quaesitor magus specialised in Vim.
  * Umbriel Ex Miscellaneous, a shapechanging maga from Ultima Thule who can take the forms of a fox and falcon and is specialised in cold magic.
  * Shale Ex Miscellanea, a giant magus who is 8ft tall and is specialised in Terram magics.
  * Alicia ex Criamon, a maga with faerie blood who studies the Enigma and has visions of the future and has strong specialisations in Rego Corpus.
  * Antonius ex Jerbiton, a diplomatic magus specialised in Mentem whose Gift does not upset mundanes.