Name: Taylor Willoughby
Current residence and occupation: Currently lives in a townhouse in London. He doesn't really have a job, but does manage some investments and other affairs for the family. Otherwise he spends his time in academic study and looking into strange events for evidence of the supernatural.
World view: Believes in magic and the supernatural along theoretical lines. He sees that there are certain threads and themes- archetypes, if you will- among almost every society and people. He believes that these are symbols and allegories which hide the way things truly work, and that the common threads can be pieced together to come up with a true magical system.
Personal goals and motivations: As outlined above, study magic and supernatural occurances across the world and use them to unlock the secrets of the way things truly work. Balance this with keeping his family happy, both re business and belief systems, and occasionally try to get out for some entertainment.
Taylor Willoughby was born July 19, 1975. While growing up, he divided his time between his family's manor house (located outside of Canterbury in southeastern England) and various private schools. Growing up he became used to affluence and has had a somewhat sheltered upbringing. He has an older sister (May, age 31) and a younger brother (Sebastian, age 24).
To all appearances, the Willoughbys are typical upper-class, English gentry. No one really works full time, instead attending to politics and society. Most of the family's money comes from trusts, investments, and properties, although May is an active businesswoman and has the closest to a "career" of any family member. However, the Willoughbys do have one unusual trait they keep hidden from others- they are all occult practicioners of one degree or another. All family members belong to an esoteric order called the Pilgrims of Light, which is organized along the lines of traditional secret societies such as the Golden Dawn. The Pilgrims firmly believe that magic and the occult sciences are real, and that they can be used to both learn about the universe and to better oneself. Although rooted in traditional European practices, these days most Pilgrims also study Eastern philosophy, tribal beliefs, and other systems, resulting in a sort of New Age hodge-podge.
According to tradition, an Elizabethan ancestor, Roland Willoughby, travelled Europe seeking out occult knowledge, and eventually returned to England to form the Order with several like-minded individuals, including the astrologer John Dee. Taylor has researched this and has found only scant evidence to support this- he suspects that the Pilgrims were probably founded around 1800 as part of an "occult chic" hitting Europe. However, he's learned to keep his opinions to himself.
Technically, only men are supposed to be full members of the Pilgrims, and women are considered "auxilliary" members, with specific knowledges to learn and duties to attend. In practice, everyone tends to be on equal footing and simply pursues their own interests. The family regularly conducts rituals and ceremonies for various reasons- wealth, good fortune, the expansion of the mind- but the ceremonies never have any visual effect.
Besides their prep-school educations, all the children of the family also received private tutoring in such unusual subjects as alchemy, astrology, mythology, and ritual magic. Now grown, all are more or less considered to be full members of the order, although Sebastian seems to take his membership and duties the most seriously. May seems to be unusually grounded for a member of the family, and prefers to deal with worldly matters- Taylors thinks she is probably expressing a strong individualist streak, or perhaps overcompensating for the apparent sexism within the Order. Again, he keeps his opinions to himself. He prefers to follow his own studies, and is a dependable but by no means dedicated participant in the Pilgrims' activities.
Especially of late, Taylor has begun to question the whole point of the Pilgrims and his family's membership. It seems to him that the teachings, rituals, and the like are so much tradition and dogma, and that there is very little genuine magic left in the Order. The ceremonies and rituals never have any visible or discernable effect, although other members are quick to point to some good turn or other as being the "result" of a particular spell. Taylor believes this is simply coincidence and, even more likely, a case of them seeing what they wish to see. While everyone around him feels that they are performing magic and unlocking secrets, Taylor thinks that they are all doing it from habit, and don't really have any kind of feeling for what they are doing.
Although the Pilgrims' stated goal is keep magic alive, for Taylor it is just the opposite- having grown up around rituals and occult ideas, they are commonplace to him, and he fails to see any sort of mystery or spirituality in them. In short, they don't hold any magic for him at all. He has been grappling with these ideas for a few years now. About the time he began to feel lackluster about the Pilgrims, he also began having strange dreams. The exact content of these he often does not remember; however, they have left him with a feeling that there is true magic out there, and that he can unlock its secrets if he applies his knowledge in new ways. Taylor now finds that he is able to find concepts and draw conclusions that he had not seen before, and that the various systems of belief make more sense to him on an intuitive level. He attributes these insights to his own subconcious, and believes that he is finding a more fundamental path to Truth than the simple ritual recitations that he has been used to. However, progress is slow, and he is growing somewhat impatient. It may be that he will soon be ready to take more radical steps, such as experimenting with spirit channelling or mind-altering drugs, but he has yet to settle on a method which he likes.
Appearance/personality: Most times, Taylor gives the appearance of a well-dressed scholar or businessman. Around strangers he is polite and somewhat withdrawn. He realizes that his upbringing was unusual, and that many people he meets would consider his beliefs and theories to be eccentric at best. When he does find someone he considers a "kindred spirit", he is quicker to open up to them, and displays a passion for his work bordering on obsession. Generally he is quiet and reserved, focusing on his work, however ever few weeks he will cut loose and either take a short vacation or, more and more often, run wild among parties and the London social scene. He's especially fond of underground dance clubs and raves, as he enjoys electronica, ambient, and tribal music.
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Strength 2
Dexterity 2
Stamina 2
Charisma 3
Manipulation 2
Appearance 3
Perception 3
Intelligence 4
Wits 3
Alertness 2
Awareness 3
Expression 3
Subterfuge 1
Etiquette 3
Meditation 2
Academics 3
Enigmas 2
Linguistics 3 (Latin, Arabic, Mandarin)
Medicine 2
Occult 3
Science 1
Allies 1
Dream 2
Resources 3
Library 2
Mystery 2
Willpower 7
Freebie expenditures:
1 dot medicine
2 dots willpower
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