Johnny Carson, Christopher Reeves and Pope John Paul 2

My last batch of Idols. I was highly tempted to do Jacques Cousteau, but while his name and persona are recognised enough, I’m not sure his likeness is well known enough to make the grade
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JOHNNY CARSON

“Here’s Johnny!”

For Decades that cry echoed through millions of homes nightly, as the people indulged in one last piece of TV for the night. Rain hail or shine, Johnny was there, to tuck them into bed. Since his death there have been many who have tried to claim his crown, but none since have managed to reach the coveted title of “the King of Late Night”. His gags left millions falling on the floor with laughter. His show launched the careers of many famous comedians, and his opinions held great weight amongst the comedy crowd. His ability to quickly adapt to accidents was legendary, and many of his most famous lines were spontaneous. Too many stars to count went on screen to chat with Johnny. Johnny set the bar when it came to talk shows, elevating them to the level of prominence they’ve reached today, with time, hard works, and imaginary golf swings.

For 1 minor charge, The King of Late Night negates the need for sleep for one night. You feel perky and refreshed for the next 16 hours, and okay for eight after that.

For 2 minor charges, The Great Carsoni gives the iconomancer a sense of the hidden connections between people, events, or objects. With a glance the iconomancer could sense that two people in a crowd a secretly lovers, that an antique teapot has no connections to the teacup next to it (which is a fake), or that a string of crimes were all committed by the same gang.

For 1 significant charge, Monologue forces people to stop and listen to you speak. The iconomancer starts this effect and begins speaking, and anyone who can hear and understand him is forced to stop and listen, and take no meaningful actions until the monologue ends. Just what the iconomancer says doesn’t matter, as long as it is even close to coherent, and includes no umms, ahhs, or pauses longer than needed for breathing (with the exception of waiting for laughter to stop, which is acceptable). Anyone who can understand what the iconomancer is saying will stop to listen, unless something very pressing forces them not to (like the building they are in being on fire). Even then, as soon as the distraction is dealt with, they will return to standing still and listening. The iconomancer can take no other important actions while delivering the monologue. He could walk around slowly, and a generous Gm might let him play golf, but nothing more strenuous than that would be acceptable without ending the effect. The effect ends when the iconomancer runs out of things to say (or runs out of the ability to say them). Some talented philibusters have held audiences entrapped for hours with this effect, but this requires some practice, and a good long book.

For 2 significant charges, My Next Guest causes a subject named or described by you to come into your immediate physical presence and speak at least one word to you, sometime in the next day. The two of you will be brought together by coincidence, and you will recognise the person when they pass by (and presumably try to rope them into a longer conversation). This effect can bring both specific individuals (The owner of this glass slipper, the guy who keyed my car, Alex Abel), and more general ones (a cop, someone who knows how to read Aramaic, a Mexican pig farmer, someone who hates Alex Abel more than me). If the spell is targeting a specific person (or a specific small group) the target receives a soul roll (minimum roll of what you rolled on the spell) to avoid this effect. If no such person exists within half a day’s travel of the iconomancer, the effect fails.

Drawing on the dark side of the Idol are two effects-

The first, Gellar’s Mistake, costs 4 significant charges. The next time the target attempts to use a supernatural skill in the presence of others, their skill is temporarily adjusted to 1 point below whatever they just rolled. That is, they automatically fail their next magickal skill roll (unless they roll OUACOWA).

The other dark gift of Carson is The Skelton Concussion, for 5 minor charges. It causes one of the iconomancers major goals to become much simpler, at the cost of severely injuring one of his friends. So for example if the iconomancer was trying to get close enough to Tom Cruise to assassinate him (and pick up that major iconomancy charge), this spell might cause his executive assistant to run your housemate over with her car (paralysing him), and give you both tickets to Tom’s new movie premiere (which he’ll be attending) to hush you up about it. Note that being on the far side of the same crowded theatre as Tom doesn’t make killing him a surety (dang) but it certainly makes it easier. The GM is encouraged to levy harsher and harsher prices on an iconomancer who relies too heavily on this effect (not to mention serious self checks).

CHRISTOPHER REEVE

“Your body is not who you are. The mind and spirit transcend the body.”

The story of Christopher Reeve is well known to the general public, but amongst iconomancers, and the underground in general, he is an Idol that draws much suspicion and rumour.
Rising to fame thanks to his works on the stage, and a run on daytime soaps, Christopher Reeve finally cracked the heights of fame with his portrayal of superman, in two popular (and two unpopular) movies. But after that initial high he went sliding down back into the lows, with films instantly forgotten by the crowds. Christopher Reeve looked set to join the ranks of the Idol almosts, just another of many pretty faces, without the force of recognition and persona required to become a true Idol. But then, it happened.
On may 27th 1995 while competing in a cross country riding and dressage competition, his horse Eastern Express refused a jump, and he fell onto his neck, and was paralysed. This tragedy shot him to fame anew, as a man once well known for his peak fitness, now confined to a wheel chair became the most prominent disability spokesman the world had seen. Millions were inspired by his refusal to give up, by his constant efforts to better the lives of the disabled, and his impressive health regime, which before he died lead him to an unprecedented level of recovery, regaining some finger movement, and partial sensation throughout his body, to the level of being called miraculous by many. The masses loved him, and wept for his death, and he ascended to the ranks of the Idols.
But there was much suspicion around the events in his life amongst the underground. Did someone engineer his accident, specifically to propel a “hero” to the ranks of the idols? More worrying to most was what HBO might have to do with it. Shortly before the accident Reeve had worked for HBO on a special called Above Suspicion, where he had played a paraplegic, alongside his wife Dana, who played a smoker, only to herself die of lung cancer despite not being a smoker in real life. The accuracy of this prediction caused flocks of occultists to look into more of the director’s works, to see whether he truly had the power to engineer the future. Some hinted his unprecedented level of recovery wasn’t so much “miraculous” as “unnatural”. There is even a rumour that he engineered the fall himself, to become an Idol and finally reunite with his love Katherine Hepburn, but some people will say anything.

For 1 minor charge, Truth, Justice, and the American Way allows the iconomancer to ignore one stress check while pursuing his Noble passion. This effect is used reflexively, invoked just after the incident that provokes the check, but before the check is rolled.

For 2 minor charges, Eastern Express completely paralyses one animal for the sum of the magick roll in minutes.

For 3 minor charges, Above Suspicion takes someone’s negative self assessments, and makes them true. It does not matter whether the statement was made seriously or in jest, all that matters is that the target has just said something stating or implying his own misfortune or lack of skill –“I’ll never get this report in on time”, “Oh god he is going to kick my ass”, “what if she doesn’t like me?” and “with my luck there won’t be any cabs” are all valid. This effect imposes a –20 shift on rolls the target takes to succeed in his self-doomed task, or causes coincidences to enact predictions that aren’t roll based (the above examples should likely penalise General Education, Struggle, and Charm, with the fourth being met by coincidence). If the statement is about an open ended, or untimed task (“we are so lost. I bet we never find our way home”) the effect lasts for the sum of the roll in days. Otherwise it lasts for the relevant duration (one bar fight, night in the city, date, whatever).

For 2 significant charges, Man of Steel reduces all damage from one source to zero, functioning similar to the entropomancy effect luck of the damned but without need for a coincidental explanation. The iconomancer is just not affected by the damage.

For 3 significant charges, Still Me allows the iconomancer to recover from normally permanent wounds. This iconomancer instantly recovers the sum of the magick roll in wound points. In addition, one permanent injury the iconomancer has sustained begins to heal. This healing takes about a month, but can cause the regrowth of eyes, limbs, soul points lost to pornomancy blasts, and any other debilitating effect which normally would not heal on its own.

Invoked negatively, The Quest for Peace, costs 4 significant charges. This effect brings about the ruination and failure of a targets plans and dreams, but only if those plans were selfless/humanitarian. Misfortune plagues any activity taken to further the nominated goal. The GM can force a flip-flop on one roll per major step on the path to the goal that the target takes, in addition to the minor calamities that occur around the target (bank errors, lost mail, etc). Furthermore the target cannot activate his noble passion for the duration of this effect. This effect lasts for one month, or until the target permanently renounces the plan/goal.

POPE JOHN PAUL II

“Totus Tuus”

Born Karol Wojtyla, pope John Paul the 2nd did much to raise the image of one of the world’s most influential institutions. He entered the papacy as the youngest pope in over one hundred years, and his famous regimen of exercise and sport showed him to be in far better physical condition than his recent predecessors, although by the end his health had to decayed to far below the norm for a pope. Under his pontificate (the second longest in history) he beatified more people than any other pope, travelled further than all his predecessors combined, and took giant steps in reconciling the church with the jews, muslims, and other faiths. When he died, the hundreds of thousands of followers gathered outside his home took up the cry of “santo subito” (saint immediately), though only iconomancers realised just how right the crowd was. John Paul 2 was given the largest funeral on historical record, and it was attended by more heads of state than any funeral before or since. Over two million people came, to walk past his body and pay their respects, and hundreds of millions more around the world mourned his passing. Not only catholics, but others, who respected the pope for his work at repairing the wounds his religion has caused in its long history. Even in the underground, where there are those who never contact the mainstream world, living entirely divorced from anything but symbology and the arcane his death was felt, if only because pope Benedict the 16th has been slightly more generous in his funding allotments to the cecilines (but just what favour he is repaying the order for is unknown).

For 1 minor charge Veritatis Splendor acts exactly as the messengers first channel.

For 2 minor charges the iconomancer can become an Honorary Globetrotter. This effect makes members of a specific group accept the iconomancer as one of them, even if such is glaringly impossible (like a black guy in the KKK, a prisoner appearing as a guard, even a pathetically lonely iconomancer appearing as a member of the local women’s volleyball team to walk into the showers). The group will treat him as one of their own (allowing the prisoner to leave at shift change), for the sum of the magick roll in hours, after which the effect ends and the group will likely fast realise they were duped (“hey what was that F*@#in N%&$er doin at our meetin?!” “Why did we let that prisoner walk out the door?”, “What was that creepy perv doing in the showers?”).

For 1 significant charge the iconomancer can ward any vehicle he is riding in against harm with Popemobile. Damage to anyone in the vehicle from any source outside the vehicle (including car crashes), is reduced by the total of the magick roll. The vehicle itself gains a slightly lesser protection; any damage it sustains is reduced by the sum of the magick roll. This effect lasts until the iconomancer gets out of the vehicle, or it is totally destroyed.

For 2 significant charges the iconomancer can offer another adept or avatar Absolution. This causes the target to regain any charges or points of avatar skill lost when the target last broke taboo. The taboo incident must have happened within a number of days equal to the tens place of the iconomancers iconomancy skill. If the target is still currently tabooed (like a sober dipsomancer), this formula will not work. It also wont restore lost avatar points above 90%, only the archetype can hand out forgiveness at that level.

4 significant charges allows the iconomancer to try Befriending his Assassin. The target of this formula instantly forgives the iconomancer for any past slights, and treats him like a friend for one month, at which point the effect ends (although if the iconomancer has really worked on the friendship, the forgiveness may become real). This effect ends early if the iconomancer ever takes harmful actions against the target, or even actively considers doing so; he must truly be seeking peace for this effect to work. (Some GM’s might wish to give the target a soul roll with a minimum result of the magick roll to resist this effect, especially if the act to be forgiven was particularly severe).

Drawing on the dark side of the idol, the iconomancer can stifle someone with Archaic Dogma for 2 significant charges. This imposes on the target the beliefs of a fundamentalist catholic. Participating in any “non-christian” acts (has premarital, post-divorce or homosexual intercourse, uses contraception, has an abortion, dishonours their father or mother, practices magick, etc) they must make a level 8 Self check, while merely being amiable with people who the target knows or strongly suspects of participating in these acts (without trying to correct them of the error of their ways) warrants a level 4 Self check. On the upside the target gains the skill Paradigm- Catholic (Helplessness-Self) at the result of the magick roll, even if they are an adept, or otherwise ineligible of gaining a paradigm skill. This effect lasts until the next sundown.