Red Victor

Required: (Mantle •••••)

Sometimes, a champion emerges. She’s wreathed in a potent Mantle: her eyes like lens flares, her skin sloughing off wave after wave of heat, steam rising from whatever blade or revolver she holds in her hand. Her accolades are on a list whose end cannot be easily found: a collection of Keeper hands in Mason jars, a chest of mighty Hedge tokens, a herd of changelings rescued from Arcadia (each comprising an adoring fan base), and so on. The Red Victor (or Vanquisher, or Vindicator) had better be ready for the role. The Vikings believed that glory and heroism put one into the written and spoken myths and invoked a kind of immortality, and that’s exactly what the Red Victor gets. She’s loved in this life and remembered long after. She cannot remain quiet or hidden as the champion of the Crimson Court. The King drags her out for every show of strength, to every salon and tournament, to every ceremony and goblin market. She becomes the emblem for the local Summer Court, like it or not. The role does suffer a peculiar downside, although it’s not a downside the Victor herself will ever deal with. If the Red Victor dies, all within the local Court possessing one or more dots in Summer Mantle suffer a loss to morale. This loss is real and supernatural, manifesting as a –1 to all rolls for a number of weeks equal to the years the Red Victor held the title of champion. If Ursula Candlefly, Red Victor of the Summer Court perishes, and she held that title for seven years, then the penalty to the Crimson Courtiers lasts for seven weeks (the “mourning” period). This period for some is marked with sadness and tributes. For others, it is a frenzy of sorrow: pulling out hair, scarring the flesh, setting public property aflame.

• The Red Victor is