River Troy

*Not Just Half a Witch*

* Overview
* Sheet
* Background
* 'Ships
* Logs

 The anger you're feeling right now, justified though it may be, is changing your dharma.

— River Troy

River Troy is a young witch who inherited his hippy mother's flakey personality. Though he has no active powers, he's able to perform the standard magic most witches can do: scrying, spellcasting, and making potions. He's also half-Whitelighter, though this is a closely guarded family secret. River is a pianist and keyboardist, as well as a singer in his school's glee club.

## Personality

River is a friendly and outgoing young man, generally optimistic and always willing to help those in need. Though not really naive, he does tend to be a little too trusting. He's also a bit of a flake, spouting New Age babble at every opportunity. Though magic is a huge part of his life, his true passion is music.

## SKILLS

River is a straight A student in his senior year of high school.

Potion making is one of the three basic skills that all witches in his tradition have, and brewing potions is one of River's strongest points. He have access to a nice supply of ingredient and recipes, so he can likely make whatever potion is needed.

River took up Tai Chi at a young age in order to help his cousin, Lucas, learn to control his projective empathy. They both also take Yoga and meditation classes.

From a young age, River was fascinated by music, and he began taking piano lessons as soon as he could. As a teenager, he moved to electronic keyboards, and he hopes to maybe join a garage band in high school. He's also has a fairly good singing voice and is a member of his school's glee club.

River has been aware of magic since before he can talk. Most of his family members have active powers, and he's witnessed scrying, potion-making, and spell-casting from a young age. As such, he probably knows more about magic than most witches his age.

## CASTING

Another of a witch's three basic skills is spellcasting, and River has been learning the spells in his mother's personal Book of Shadows, as well as the family's Book, for some time. He started writing his own Book of Shadows on his thirteenth birthday.

## POWERS

This is a completely passive power with an immediate effect, and it isn't foolproof. But at times of great danger, when there's an immediate threat directed at River, without any conscious effort, he orbs in place, disappearing until the attack has passed, then reappearing again in the same spot. The immediate threat could be anything from a thrown punch to a bullet to a tossed fireball, but it must already be in motion before this power activates. Simply aiming a gun at him won't cause him to orb, but firing it will. He has no control over this, so it could potentially cause problems if it happens in front of unaware eyes.

Another natural ability of Whitelighters, River can take on the outer appearance of anyone, which includes the way a person's voice sounds. Speech patterns and physical mannerisms need to be consciously mimicked, however. The disguise is nearly flawless and practically impossible for all but the most powerful beings to see through, though Elders, other Whitelighters, very powerful witches, etc, see through the disguise with ease.

Like many in the Troy family, River has discovered that he has supernatural empathy. He can sense the emotions of anyone within a range of about 20 feet. He can focus his attention on a single person to get a more accurate reading of their emotions.

Thanks to some training with his Whitelighter father, River has learned to harness his natural healing ability, which is, of course, tied to the emotion of love. He can heal most injuries, magical or mundane, but can't revive the dead.

River inherited his whitelighter father's teleportation ability of orbing, and he spent about a year with his father, learning to master the ability. His range is still limited to the Earth plane (so no orbing up to the Elders, nor to realms of the Otherworld, nor to hell dimensions, and so forth). When he teleports, he vanishes and reappears in a swirl of glowing white orbs.

Scrying is another of the basic skills all witches of River's tradition learn, and while he's not as good at it as his cousin Lucas, River can usually find what he's looking for.

River's primary, active power is the ability to read a person's thoughts, but only when he is in physical contact with them. The contact must be skin-to-skin -- clothing or other barriers block this power. A single touch is enough to gain surface thoughts. For deeper probing into a person's mind, including memories, he must focus and concentrate, while maintaining physical contact.

## ADVANTAGES

River's family has a different tradition than most as keepers of magical knowledge. While they do have a familial Book of Shadows, each member starts their own whenever they feel comfortable and at 13 are typically given a tome to start recording their own magical journey in. As such River has his own personal book of shadows with spells and knowledge in it that are important to him. But he has access to the family library that has the personal Books of Shadows of almost every witch in his family for over two hundred years. In addition, River has copied his personal BoS into a non-internet-capable (so it can't be remotely hacked) tablet, which is not only protected by password security, but also by a fairly potent protection charm.

River has a unique Book of Shadows, in that instead of a hand-written, physical object, it is contained within a magical, electronic tablet. This device isn't an ordinary bit of electronics, but rather a magical object, fueled by magic. It doesn't need to be plugged into an electric socket to recharge, and it's -not- connected to the internet in any way, though it does have a magical cloud storage with nearly unlimited storage capacity. It's also warded against many forms of intrusion, both magical and mundane. This is his personal Book of Shadows, not to be confused with his family's extensive library, which only exists as physical volumes.

The Troy family has never been one to fight demons unless attacked. Instead, they are from a long line of teachers and support roles. They procure magical objects and knowledge, preserving them for others of the magical community. As such, through his family, River has an impressive amount of knowledge and relics available to him should he ever need them.

River has access to all the resources of his family's magic shop and vault. Coming from a long line of magical lorekeepers, they have an impressive amount of books, potions ingredients, and so forth.

Witches are well known for the "Power of Three." That is, they are especially adept at combining their individual strengths in order to cast much more powerful, impactful magics. Some of the most powerful spells a witch can cast require a circle of others to cast, and a circle is usually formed out of triads of witches, each wielding the Power of Three. Power of Three spells can be done by any three witches, but they have to have the same focus on their goal and ideally be on the same page. Witches who are at odds with each other may even have the spell fail or go wrong. For even greater effect, various groups of three can assemble into larger circles of nine or twelve, and a circle of thirteen is particularly potent.

## WEAKNESSES

River's mom died when he was still a baby, and his father, being a Whitelighter, is also technically dead. As such, River is an orphan, and his maternal uncle and his wife are his legal guardians. However, since they are often away on artifact-finding adventures, River's maternal grandmother, Endora Troy, is his primary caregiver.

The Charmed-style witch has various serious rules about personal gain, and actively using powers for that purpose tends to end up in some kind of backfire. It's all about balance and intent. Using your powers to clean up your room in a hurry so you can make it to school on time because you've been helping people, likely won't have any repercussions. However using a spell to get a free candy bar because you want one, likely will set you on this convoluted path where you end up helping someone to even the balance.

Serena Troy came from a long, proud line of witches that stretches back to the town of Troyes in the Champagne region of northern France. The de Troyes, as they were called before immigrating to America in the late Eighteenth century, have long been teachers and keepers of magical lore, rather than warriors in the fight against evil, but Serena was something of an exception. Like her older brother, Serena had an adventurous wanderlust, and she spent much of her time traveling the United States in search of magical artifacts and bits of obscure lore. A free spirit, she also wasn't one to be penned in by many rules or regulations. So when she fell in love with the family's Whitelighter, Raphael, she had no problem breaking the rules to be with him. Unfortunately, she became pregnant, and in order to keep Raphael from being severely punished by the Elders, she kept secret the identity of her baby's identity, even from Raphael himself. As he knew he wasn't Serena's only lover, he never suspected the truth.

And so her son was born, and she named him River Moonbeam Raphael Troy. For the first year of his life, Serena remained at home and helped her mother, Endora, run the family business, the House of Troy magic shop. But her wanderlust proved stronger than her maternal instinct, and Serena soon left home to chase after yet another mythical relic. Unfortunately, it was guarded by a particularly nasty demon, and Serena was fatally wounded. Raphael wasn't able to reach her in time, and she died in his arms.

Now an orphan with no known father, River was taken in by his maternal Uncle Darren and his wife, Aunt Helen, who became his legal guardians, about the same time his cousin was born. As both Darren and Helen were also collectors of magic, both River and Lucas were often left in the care of their grandmother, Endora. The boys were raised together, and though they have always known they were cousins, they've always been as close as brothers.

River's magical education began at a young age, and while he became competent at scrying and spellcasting, it was potion making that River truly excelled at. He also expressed an interest in music and began taking piano lessons around age six. Nearly a decade later, he has moved on to electronic keyboards, hoping to join or even form a garage band in high school. He's also a fairly good singer and a member of his school's glee club.

One thing that has always bothered River is that he doesn't seem to have an active or even passive magical power. His cousin Lucas discovered his projective empathy at a very young age, but to date, River has yet to manifest any such power. To help him learn to control his emotions, and therefore his empathy, Lucas was enrolled in classes for Tai Chi and Yoga, and River joined as well to support his cousin. But when Lucas developed geomantic abilities, River grew more jealous and withdrawn. Though they were still very close, River sometimes had episodes of sullen, almost surly behavior.

And then, very recently, River orbed for the first time. Confused, River used a spell from the family's Book of Shadows to summon the ghost of his mother, and Serena was forced to finally reveal the truth about River's father. Although Endora had long suspected, Darren and Helen were shocked by the revelation, as was Raphael. It was agreed that Raphael's identity remain a closely-guarded secret, at least until River has mastered his new power and can prove to the Elders that he's not a danger to himself or others.

Logs featuring River Troy:

* 2019.01.22 - The Council of the Vale
* 2019.02.03 - It May Be the Apocalypse, but Armageddon Is Canceled