Ultimately, I've found it easier to nail down the basic character sheet first before getting too heavily into mantles. Mantles do allow us to further capture and refine what it means to be a [whatever]... In this case, a mystical shaman of the Tarenti.
So, my fundamental thoughts about spirits and the spirit world...
"Reality" is, at it's heart, an enormous series of interlocking agreements between elements. The shaman of the Tarenti can interact with those elements and forge their own agreements. The shaman might ask to borrow an Eagle's sight in exchange for nesting material.
It is through communion with the spirits of the world (not just animals and nature, but "the world" at a deeper level) that the shaman can come to understand the world.. Communion and understanding greater things, including non-physical abstractions, like "commerce" or "seasons" are possible, if not often sought out.
So, at a base level, the High-Concept Aspect provides us the narrative justification to talk with the spirits and to forge contracts with them.
Angharad might
- make a deal with a mouse to scout the farmhouse in exchange for an offering of cheese.
- might hitch-hike with a crow's sight in exchange for an offering of nesting material for it's rookery
- might "borrow" the form of a eagle in exchange for fresh-killed salmon (which, coincidentally, might be convinced to sacrifice itself via another contract)
- Might "borrow" the strength of a bear in exchange for a guarantee of protection while it hibernates
But this is all pretty personal and low-level stuff. Angharad might also potentially:
- Make a deal with Rat (note the capital-R) to be told if there is a person in the keep who bears a silver thorned crown. In exchange, she will b
- Make a deal with her weapon such that it will never injure a child, but in exchange she must feed it blood weekly...
- make a deal with the local forest, that it will guide her to food and safety provided that she neither hunts nor brings injury to it's denizens
I could go on and on... But it's not just individual animal that Angharad can forge contracts with. It goes right up the chain to big world-shaking fundamental concepts.
if you want it to.
Largely influenced by the roleplaying games: Changeling: the Lost, Werewolf: The Whatever, Elric, Nobilis and The Whispering Vault.