Re: Yellow Kid, Two ideas
They're both good ideas and either could work (with some caveats on the first).
Leonica is a very interesting character and could work quite well. "Information" is a very broad domain, so we'd need to get a very good handle on what that means. What specifically would you like her to be able to do? I'm guessing she could do some pretty powerful divinations, but what does it mean to preserve information, or to create it in a way that's distinct from divination, and in a way that doesn't infringe too much on what would probably be other typical domains (like the Internet, Books, Science, etc)? I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around that, and it's an important step.
It should be interesting to see how she interacts with George McGinty, given their respective backgrounds. George and Leonica would also both govern very abstract Estates. This is fine and (as I'm telling Adam) abstract is perfectly acceptable, though depending on what other folks come up with could very strongly color the Imperator's demeanor. How much of a challenge this is to me to create Estate-based character challenges and roleplaying will depend upon how much meat we can give to Leonica's abilities.
Bridgett sounds like a lot of fun on a number of levels and her Estate should be relatively simple to define. I think she'd be interesting to play no matter which abilities or codes you favored, and I have several ideas about how different scenarios could play out. I could also suggest a few interesting gifts, depending on how you specifically envision her.
The interaction between Bridgett and George should also be fun, though for very different reasons.
The WHY (and how) of things gets covered pretty heavily in the rulebook, so much so that it's difficult to boil down concisely. But I will try to do so.
To some extent the original interests of Nobles do continue past their enNoblement: friends and family may need protection (and possibly extension of their mortal lifespans). They take more than a passing interest in things that formed their lives as the stood up until enNoblement (favorite causes, important places). All of this also affects how they approach their Estate: what does the Estate personally mean to them? I'm hoping that with well-developed characters, a lot of this will grow organically based on their early experiences and interactions with other Nobles and their Imperator. Of course, there's always jockeying for power and relationships with other Nobles they encounter.
But let's say the Dominus of Prisons wants to expand his domain. His Estate will always be all things prisons, but by making prisons more common or more important in the world, he increases his own influence. If more people are in prisons, he has power over more people. If prisons become more socially acceptable (i.e. The conventional wisdom being "he's not a bad guy, he's served his time"), people will also be less averse to going resisting prison sentences themselves or sending others to prison. He can also try indirectly to turn otherwise mundane situations into prisons of a sort (I thought my boss was a bit of a control freak, but manacles?) and make the world at large more dependent upon prisons (my goodness, who can we get to make license plates if the prisons don't?!?!) to provide extra strings to pull. All of things expand the practical influence of Prisons in the world and give him more power to work through his Domain.
And how can our Dominus of Prisons make sure that prisons are more like places of healing than centers of collective vengeance or (as an Angel might advocate) places where justice is meted out and the inhabitants are uplifted in their personal (probably spiritual) beauty? He can make sure that they employ skilled therapists and social workers are readily available to treat the inhabitants. He can tighten the bureaucratic net that prevents people who would otherwise harm society from getting out too early and dabble in law enforcement to make sure the most murderous elements of society find their way to his domain. He could equip himself for a hunt and try to round up all the spirits of malice and violence that plague prisons, probably killing them (since dumping them elsewhere would probably just leave a different segment of humanity to suffer their ill effects). He could work a Word of Power that actually causes prison cells to actively make their inhabitants more peaceful (and prepare for anyone who might try to take advantage of his weakened state, or deal with humans who are having a hard time rationalizing this new change to prison life. If people begin to suspect the miraculous, there could be a slew of cases of dementia animus across the world, and he could be brought before the Locust Court).
Also, it pays to think big about what sorts of things a person who has been enNobled could do. There's all the tropes of immortality stories like comprehensive experience: a food aficionado could try to eat at every restaurant on the face of the planet, a shallow casanova could try to sleep with everyone. A character could try to win the heart of someone beyond their reach. He could try to reform every individual human, punish them, or replace them. The Noble entrusted specifically with mosquitoes is likely to be very powerful or influential indeed, for more than a few Nobles have tried to wipe them out or transform them entirely. You could try to find loopholes in Heaven's laws or free all the souls in Hell. You could try to take over a nation, a movement, or a field of endeavor. Lord Entropy is very powerful and none dare resist him openly... but could he be overthrown? Some characters try to control worlds, realities, races and species, others create new ones. Some seek deep truths and answers that nobody knows (whence comes the Wild? Why do the Excrucians really want to destroy existence? What lies beyond the Weirding Wall, in the Lands Beyond Creation?) Can a Noble become an Imperator?
Nobles also tend to their Chancels for their Imperator, punishing and rewarding, initiating projects, providing justice, and doing all the sorts of things that Kings and Queens do, but much more comprehensively and usually on a weirder stage. They attend Noble social events and initiate them, celebrating festivals and holidays, meeting with factions, artistic events, ceremonies to transfer items or construct monuments, duels, and things that they do just for fun (a Noble of the Dark might call a social hunt where the prey is none other than Man). Nobles generally look out for their Anchors. Sure, they send their Anchors to do stuff for them, but Anchors also tend to be weirdness magnets, getting things like radio signals through their teeth purporting to be from Adam and Eve.
Defending your Domain means foiling Excrucian attacks which come in a variety of forms. They enact 'Flower Rites' which try to take an isolated situation as an exemplar for the whole estate and render it meaningless (what is a prisoner who is perfectly free?). Once the real-life situation is set up, they work the magic and Nobles can be severely debilitated, even killed. Excrucians will do other things like attack the Domain of Horses by sealing the spirit portal through which new horse souls enter the world or through something more mundane like spreading a deadly new horse flu.
Nobles also serve their codes: Powers of the Light work to end wars, tobacco use, and consumption of fatty foods. They sponsor extropian projects. Powers of Heaven render justice in the world, sponsor the arts, creativity and science. They uplift and beautify the ugly (and themselves) and foil the plots of Hell to ruin the world. Powers of Hell spread corruption, buy human souls, and encourage suffering. Powers of the Wild undermine social boundaries, make up their own rules, and cause weird, random frustration for other people. Etc.
And just when Nobles think they've got life under control, their Imperators boss them around.
