If there's one thing I've learned about Magic, it's that Dominia is a setting that is ALL settings*.

If the DC and Marvel universes which are far more constrained than Magic's can accommodate space operas, slice of life stories, comedies, police procedurals, surreal fantasy, deeply literary meditations on the nature of belief and change and destiny, and dark horror, Magic can accommodate a magical harem anime (though preferably sans some of the more obnoxiously male gazey tropes of the genre).

*Credit, as always, for this brilliant insight goes to former F&S veteran Mercer

Oh wow I haven't thought about those books in quite a while...

On the subject of characters being able to defend themselves, there are a lot of different ways to go with this.

First off, characters don't have to be able to defend themselves. There are a lot of interesting possibilities for fiction which can arise from characters not having the wherewithal to defend themselves. For example (and, to be clear, I'm not saying that this example or any of the others I list are things you *should* do with this character, just ways that he could be written), maybe Milov has to rely on one or another of his many loves for assistance in a fight? Think about (going to date myself with this reference... sigh...) Encyclopedia Brown and Sally Kimball -- who, admittedly, was not exactly Encyclopedia's love interest (although I'm sure that fan fiction exists out there somewhere...). Encyclopedia didn't have to be able to defend himself, because he had a friend who would look out for him. So there are angles like that you could explore.

Second, defending yourself doesn't always mean being able to win a fight. For example, to crib a line from one of my own characters (which is the height of vanity, but oh well), there's more than one way to rob a well-guarded train. You can shoot all the guards, sure. That can work. But you can also just detach the train car the guards are riding in when the train slows down on the grade. You don't always have to be able to match violence with violence to look out for yourself. Again, I'm not literally saying that this would be Milov's shtick, but there are angles like that to explore. Maybe he can use fear or deception to get out of a fight. Maybe he can fool his enemies into attacking each other. Maybe he can inflate to five times his normal size, like a puffer fish. Maybe he can sweet-talk his way out of a jam -- before you know it, he's sharing a drink with the person who wanted to beat him senseless. There are a ton of possibilities if you want to explore that space.

Maybe he can inflate to five times his normal size, like a puffer fish.

Hold on... I'm sure I can use this somewhere...

lol A Green merfolk?

Anywho, unless someone objects to the plausibility of a character uniquely being able to summon a literal avatar of someone and synchronize the avatar with the person it's an avatar of, and it be projected/maintained by either or then Milov will be a charismatic Planeswalker with the signature magic to summon conduits through which his beloved friends and love interests can interact with him despite being worlds apart

Thank you everyone for the helpful tug-of-war, it does help, and I lament my reluctance to write before I feel a character has proverbial feet to stand on, especially with so many instances of "Do you think this would even work or be plausible?"

I have to say, and this is something that has been true but I've been too polite to mention, you should REALLY think about breaking up your thoughts more often. The size of the paragraphs aren't that long, but you tend to cover a lot of territory in a really limited space, and it gets to be a little hard to parse after a certain point.

Anyways, this sort of has to do with the nature of summoning to start with, after a fashion. Take... I dunno, Glory Seeker for example. This is a generic card whose personality has been outlined by the nature of the name. Aside from that, it isn't much more of a person, just sort of a generic being. But the thing is, as outlined in the story Loraan's Smile, the better you know someone the more detail goes into the spell and the more vividly alive that summon becomes. The more they act like the person they are supposed to be.

Now, the relevance to your proposal here is that I think we'd all be fine with him summoning a representation of the people he knows since that's close to what summoning is in the first place. This would give him a reason to actually get to know people better, because it would enhance the simulacra he summons of their skills. Now, my proposal is that rather have a sort of syncing process for it, instead, I'd suggest having little tokens of affection that Milov gives these women that acts as an experience/memory catch. That way the artifact itself syncs with this simulacrum, and then the woman he's given it to can access those memories as if they were her own. (because imagine if she's in the middle of something and all of a sudden has to deal with whatever he's doing. It's the summoning real beings thing all over again.)

*I inexplicably now wish we had some species of aven based on ducks.

Do you mind if I make a YMtC card for Milov in a top secret project I'm working on?

Milov, Prince of Hearts

Planeswalker - Milov (M)
3

+2: Up to one target creature can't block this turn.
0: Search your library for a creature or planeswalker card and reveal it. Shuffle your library, then put that card on top of it.
-9: Untap all creatures and gain control of them until end of turn. They gain haste until end of turn.

So, one important wrinkle with that idea is that this could be, effectively, a way of somewhat cheating death. It gets into the issues raised by digital brain copies and the like.

Is that a road we want to go down? I think it could be interesting if we did but it's definitely tricky territory.

You can still summon people who've died just fine. (Again see Loran's Smile) The trick here is that you're suggesting he might summon someone that functions as near to the real thing as makes no difference (else why would they care about having the memories?)

So they'd only exist for the duration of the summon but they would, in that moment, exist.

OH, I see what you're getting at. That sounds about right, it works and fits very well thematically. The only tweak (more like an addition) I would make is that each trinket would let them also magically "program" the avatar between summonings, so that aside from helping Milov, the avatar would also interact with Milov how the person chooses, so that when they recollect the summoning, it isn't TOO obviously vicarious.

Only particulars are 1. If the avatars are generated by his red or white mana, I wonder how this might reflect the relationship between the person, Milov, and the avatar in regards to the color pie.

2. I'm thinking while "negotiator" could still be something he could do, I think a 'job' that could still serve as both a job and a sort of explanation for his travels (like Ajani and Dack's vague "uhh, I'm from/going.....somewhere....else) is if Milov was a messenger/courier but also extended his services as a transplanar courier (before there was the Consortium, and now Fiora implies there's still planar trading) does this apply well enough? It also triples as, in addition to an ideal job for a traveler and a general source of income, but ALSO as a viable plot device for framing scenarios he could and would get himself into. Anything wrong with that picture?

I would actually advise against that because it gives him a reason to get to know them well. The more time he spends with them, the more they will be closer to the real person. If you make it so that the simulacrum are programmed by outside sources, the less impetus you have for him to make deeper bonds.

I do agree that's important, but wouldn't there be some inconsistencies between the memories of the summon's actions and the person's? That's the only reason I thought to reconcile those details.

Oh! Uhh, sure I suppose lol Only headscratcher is why +2 is what it is. Otherwise, go for it.

Then he doesn't know them as well as he thinks and should spend more time with them.