Monthly Make-A-Magus Contest

[RoydGolden]

Has voting began yet? Usually You explicitly announces it. Whatever. Here's mine.

3 points: Madison Montagne. It's simple, but I just really love the basic concept of this. Really creative and well-done.

2 points: Tenhourin Zuizan. Daneel's stuff is amazing as always, and this is no exception. The tie in with Kiyohime's legend and integration of Buddhist lore was really cool.

1 point: Carrick Ithildred. His personality is fun and the way his cursecraft works is very interesting.

Pretty much all the entries were some degree of good, but as an honorary mention, the idea of using English language 'curse words' as actual curses in zikari's Matsuoka sheet is incredibly hilarious. Kudos to that.

[Criarino]

3pts- Catarina. The details are fascinating
2pts- Madison. An interesting and creative idea.
1pts- Pierce. A funny idea, fun to read

Shit, next time I will have to work harder

[sutaa]

3 points - Tenhourin Zuizan
2 points - Madison Montagne
1 point - Alexander Liao

[Flustered Saber]

How long does voting last? Still gotta read all the last minute sheets.

[zikari8]

How long does voting last? Still gotta read all the last minute sheets.

A week

[You]

3 - Mamoru Matsuoka (Don't think that actually qualifies as magecraft without linking it to a concept that's a bit older. Type writer mystic code is very good. But v good)
2 - Henry Pentagast (taking the whole spiritual surgery is a curse etc stuff and going with that witch doctor stuff is good)
1 - Tenhourin Zuizan (gud)

[the god of world-0]

Okay, i dont feel confortable but i will cast my votes

1 point- hazel by bearhero: i like the idea of a magus detective
2 points- mamoru by zikari: i realy like the idea of a literal cursing guy
3 points - platina by royd : i love the idea of... Well, platina. She is like a better executed eddel , wich makes me wonder how she would interact with both the machthalter siblings

[NMR-3]

1 to Carrick Ithildred. I'm not so much into the idea of centuries of stagnation just so a little kid could revolutionize the family craft, but I do dig the idea of reducing curse severity by spreading it around, so to speak.
2 to Zuizan. He's more someone cursed, rather than someone cursing, which is why I decided not to give the full 3 points. Still, creative and interesting, using the concepts canon introduced and expanding on them.
3 to Madison Montaigne. I have a thing for librarians (which red-blooded male doesn't) but the idea of book curses is fascinating. Above all, I like the idea that the only reason her curses don't work on her as well as her victims is because she never leaves the library and there's this massive karmic debt just waiting for her to step outside.

[34]

1 pt - Alexander Liao
2 pt - Chiba Fantas
3 pt - Mamoru Matsuoka

[MehKitteh]

Welp... I'm late again. Better start writing casuals on the Create-A-Mage thread instead.

Anyway,

3 Points to Tenhourin Zuizan. Huh, achieving samadhi through flames indeed. "Kiyohime is

love

curse

, Kiyohime is

life

death

" taken to extreme is amazing.

2 Points to Madison Montagne. I kinda have a weird gravitational pul towards bookish girls, and cursing via books is pretty nice. So 2 points.

1 Point to Alexander Liao. When I was browsing the thread for the Mages, the faceclaim for Liao loaded slowly, so I took the time to read everything first before seeing the faceclaim. Overblown chuuni snake-related techniques, memory

eating

erasing

, the sheet just screams of Hazama. And well... Snake curses.

Honorable mention: Mamoru. Fun sheet, and makes me wonder if people who frequently curses could be mages practicing their craft...

[Balthizar]

This month's selection is difficult to choose between. Almost everything is really good.

3 points: Platina Egress Wingfield
I really enjoy her refined and diciplined personality and demeanor. I also really enjoy her use of Dainsleif a a genuinely cursed artifact. It's all too often that we see objects that are claimed to be "cursed" but without any tangible evidence of such an effect. I enjoy the way she uses her own magecraft to counter the curse's effect and to augment the sword's beneficial effects. It's also nice to see another Noble Phantasm handed down through the generations like Fragarach and Rhon. An overall enjoable character. We'll done.

2 points: Catarina de la Fuente
Interesting personality and backstory. I liked her relationship with her apprentice/husband and for the fact that she's not a typical Church member. I particularly enjoyed her Mystic Codes and the great deal of weight behind its lore as well as the responsibility that comes with it. The only thing holding her back from my #1 spot is that her abilities don't seem curse-like enough. I understand that it'ssupposed to be some Old Testament style divine punishment, which is really cool on its own, but I didn't get a real "curse" impression from it. If this month's theme was more general, she would have gotten first place from me easily.

1 point: Madison Montaigne
I enjoy her bookwormish demeanor, her position in the Association, and her simple but interesting usage of "mail order" curses.

Special mentions to Carrick Ithildred for his unique curse dispersion magecraft, Lieselotte Shadenfreude for having nearly the exact same abilities and backstory as the character I had planned on submitting, and Mamoru Matsuoka for his form of magecraft making me laugh in a "so crazy it just might work" kinda way.

[Ayr]

3 points: Tenhourin Zuizan
2 points: Madison Montaigne
1 point: Henry Pentagast

[Sunny]

Huh. Being candid, I was this close to pulling my entry at the last minute, so I'm surprised anyone voted for mine. I honestly think most of the other entries came off stronger as characters. Appreciations all the same, so far. ^^;

As my votes, hm hm hm...

3 points: Carrick Ithildred
I just really enjoyed the concept and explanation for how the magecraft works. Both the original intent (and how cynically it backfired) as well as how the 'fixed' version worked. You really went heavy into justifying the curse format and I appreciated it.

2 Points: Tenhourin Zuizan
A very interesting choice for a curse to develop out. The concept is creative, engaging, and strong as are the abilities. The bio raises a lot of cool abilities and story hints, and very very cool magecraft/mystic codes. The only thing that kept it from 3 for me was that I didn't pick up much of his personality from it.

Which was fixed and then some in the addendum.

In the interest of fairness, I can't bring myself to count the vignette since it was added after the window closed. But it gave me a much stronger view of him as a character and is probably the nicest written portrayal of Kiyo I've seen to boot. If I was counting that, I'd say 3. As is, I'll stick with 2.

1 Point: Alexander Liao
A nice reference to that Eastern curse, especially since you acknowledge its unreliability and need to resort to trickery to make it effective against actual magi. Not a likeable character - but that's rather the point. He fits his niche.

Honorable Mentions:
Catarina de la Fuente - Really good personality / bio, but very tangential to the theme. I suppose the loss of sensation is a good substitute for the traditional curse kickback, but it's a little too removed for the theme, I feel. Great character, though, and quite well drafted.

Chiba Fantas - I like the idea, though Liao just edged out ahead. I think because he felt like a more digestible single concept and Chiba went in more directions at once. Ending the line with an anti-cursebot is kind of mean, lol.

[Bird of Hermes]

3pts - Tenhourin Zuizan
2pts - Carrick Ithildred
1pt - Madison Montaigne

- - - Updated - - -

A bit later than I intended but I thought I'd already voted at some point

[Flustered Saber]

Wew time to vote

3 Points: Madison Montaigne
Loved it to death. Cursed libraries, mysterious bookkeepers, malicious cute familiars, mail-order curses, I'm a sucker for the whole package and it's presented in a charming way to boot. Also some strong lore ties which are always nice. Makes me want to see her interact with the Ashurbanipal sheet I made someday.

2 Points:Henry Pentagast
Nice creepy good guy, and I like the take of keeping the gross destructive tendencies of his curses but turned to a positive bent. Sorta reminded me of Franken Fran, I could see him leading a horror story.

1 Point: Mamoru Matsuoka
Kind of an odd vote for me because I actually didn't like him. Swearing like a sailor just isn't my cup of tea, but on the other hand it's still a very clever sheet with a lot of love put into it. It's a very funny twist on curses, so even if I didn't like it personally it's without a doubt a good entry.

Can't really give any honorable mentions because I thought they were all really great. Picking second and third place took me most of the week.

[You]

voting ends in like an hour

[zikari8]

3 Points: Zuizan

2 Points: Carrick

1 Point: Catarina

[You]

Well thank you for all the votes. Time to count up the votes.

- - - Updated - - -

Third Place is

Spoiler:

getting 12 points.

Second is

Spoiler:

with 20 points

And finally, first is

Spoiler:

Tenhourin Zuizan

with 22 points

Very close race this time. 2 votes separated first and second.
Also I haven't been saying this for the past two contests but if the sheet authors want to say anything you're more than welcome to.
Like additions you think might be good to the sheet template or thoughts you had about people's feedback, or congratulating someone, thoughts about your own in comparison to another's, etc.

[Bird of Hermes]

Only got time to talk about 1 at the moment, I'll do more later if I can. I picked Zuizan as my fav due to the way it meshed itself in with a canonical character and Kiyohime was a perfect candidate. One who is cursed was a creative interpretation of the prompt IMO and the kind of stuff I'd like to see more of.

As for myself... Magus creation may not be my forte but it's enjoyable and I've gone from no mentions to some honourable mentions so I like to think I'm getting better.

[Sunny]

Kya, congratulations!

I'm not super surprised by the winner - even without considering the attached short scene, using Kiyohime's flames as a curse was a very cool concept and the magecraft showed research too. But there were a lot of strong entrants, honestly. I legitimately considered pulling my entry as a weaker one, so placing silver was a surprise! This was a fun month and looking forward to the next one.

Magus creation is much harder than Servant creation, IMO... But that made it a nice challenge.