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Issue #4

Hermes' PortalIssue n° 4 2002

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Who's Who . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Publisher's corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Merinita Mysteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

by David Chart

News from the Line Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Stories for Elder Magi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10by Timothy Ferguson

Covenants as Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

by Erik Dahl

Dear Abelard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

Hermetic Information Storage and Flow . . . . . . . . . . . .31

by Timothy Ferguson

Ex Bibliotheca Durenmare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35

by Eric Minton

Heretic's Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37

by Andrew Gronosky

hermes' portalPublisher: Hermes’ Portal

Layout: Eric Kouris

Contributors: David Chart, Erik Dahl, Timothy Ferguson, Andrew Gronosky, Eric Minton

Editorial and proofreading help: Sheila Thomas

Cover and back: Angela Taylor (C), Radja Sauperamaniane (B)

Interior illustrations: Angela Taylor (border & p. 4, 8, 13, 15, 17, 30, 37), Alexander White (p. 10, 12, 16), Radja Sauperamaniane (pagenumbering) & illustrations from Lacroix P., Sciences & Lettres au Moyen-Age et à l’époque de la Renaissance (Firmin-Didot, Paris, 1877)

Thanks: All the people who submitted ideas, texts, illustrations or helped in the production of this issue.

Hermes’ Portal is an independent publication dedicated to Ars Magica players. Hermes’ Portal is available through email only.

Hermes’ Portal is not affiliated with Atlas Games or White Wolf Gaming Studio. References to trademarks of those companies are notintended to infringe upon the rights of those parties. Ars Magica was created by Jonathan Tweet and Mark Rein Hagen.

Hermes’ Portal # 4, Copyright ©2002, Hermes’ Portal. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this work is allowed for personal use only.

Contacting HP

Email

Hermes.Portal@wanadoo.fr

Web site

www.hermesportal.fr.st

Who’s Who?

David ChartDavid Chart is the Ars Magica Line Editor. He

has been writing material for Ars Magica since thefirst Wizard’s Grimoire, co-developed the Wizard’s Gri-

moire Revised Edition, and wrote Heirs to Merlin. In reallife, he is a mild mannered teacher of philosophy.

Erik DahlHis name means “King of the Valley.” He is a

Cancer, which means that today is a 7. He works asan information architect, which involves applyingstrategy to web design and drawing up site maps. Hehas been playing Ars Magica for about seven years,and has been a part of a troupe for almost a third ofthat time. He and his wife live in Davis, Californiawith a lot of books, theater props, musical instru-ments and cooking utensils. He also heads his localchapter of the American Association AgainstAcronym Abuse, Abbreviations and Ambiguity(AAAAAAA). You can listen to the wacky music ofhis band Volvo Maroon for free athttp://www.volvomaroon.com/.

Timothy FergusonTimothy Ferguson is 28 and works as a library

locum in Thuringowa, North Queensland, Australia.He’s currently fossicking about for a new job, aslocums do, and studying for his next degree.

Andrew GronoskyAndrew Gronosky is a scientific programmer liv-

ing near Boston, Massachusetts. He even knows howto spell “Massachusetts.” He has been playing ArsMagica since 1st Edition in 1988. His most signifi-cant gaming-related accomplishment has been meet-ing an unattached, female gamer— a feat heretoforebelieved impossible— and being fortunate enough tobecome her boyfriend. And he owes it all to ArsMagica.

Eric Kouris (publisher)Eric is 34 and teaches mathematics. He began

playing RPGs in 1982 with FGU’s Chivalry & Sorcery

(instead of AD&D), then Space Opera, Call of Cthul-

hu,… In 1989, he turned to Ars Magica, and in 1994,he began publishing a French zine for Ars Magicanamed Ars Mag.

Eric MintonEric Minton works as a web designer by day, and

as a layabout, freeloader and all-around slacker bynight. He started roleplaying over 20 years ago andhas been running a diceless Ars Magica saga for thepast two years; he may write an article about thissomeday. He shares domestic bliss with his lovelygamer boyfriend Conn in Astoria, NY. This is hisfirst publication.

Radja SauperamanianeRadja is working in a game store in Paris. He

worked on the card game Zoon. He has been doingillustrations for Ars Mag since issue #11.

Angela TaylorAngela studied English Literature at Clare Col-

lege, Cambridge, and Mediaeval History at York,taught for some years, then married Neil. She drawsand paints, while making rude comments aboutNeil’s gaming (fair enough, really!); she is a non-gamer… almost a “gaming widow” even!

Sheila Thomas (editor)Sheila Thomas has been editing technical publi-

cations for paper and electronic distribution foryears. This is her first attempt at doing it for gamematerial. She discovered RPGs about ten years agobut it was a couple of years before she learnt thatAD&D wasn’t the only RPG system around. Shenow devotes most of her gaming time to Ars Magi-ca but is still playing in that AD&D campaign.

Alexander WhiteA scribbler in the spare time between uni lectures

and essay deadlines, Alex (who uses the third personall the time) always wanted to sketch a few picturesfor a roleplaying game. As someone who likes com-plements, he takes his sketch pad to all his gamingsessions and is really annoyed when people point outthat the perspective is wrong and that the womenlook like men.

Publisher’s cornerHello!

When I launched Hermes’ Portal, I planned torelease four issues a year.

It looks like I’ve been a bit out of schedule. Issue#4 is here and there is enough time to release a fifthbefore the first anniversary. So you’ll see a fifth issuesometime during Summer.

And now, let’s concentrate on this issue.

First, I’d like to thank Eric Minton for takingcharge of a new column, “Ex Bibliotheca Duren-mare”, presenting Hermetic books and new spells.

I also thank David Chart, Ars Magica Line Edi-tor, for giving us some insight regarding Ars’ futurein his “News from the Line Editor”.

Of course, you’ll also find “Dear Abelard” and“The Heretic’s Corner”, although Michaël de Ver-teuil gave the quill to Andrew Gronosky.

Again, don’t hesitate to send your questions tothe column’s authors – if they are published, you’llreceive a free copy of Hermes’ Portal.

The Mysteries trend continues with David’s takeon Merinita’s secrets. New virtues and new societies.

Timothy gives us two articles, one on informationflow in the Order, the second (in two parts) on storyideas for elder magi. Now your SG will have morethan enough ways to make your 100+ year old magusshudder.

Erik Dahl takes a new look at Covenant creation,applying to it the concepts behind character creation.

Last, you still have until May 31 to send in yourstories for the scenario contest.

Eric3

Merinita Mysteriesby David Chart

Thanks to Neil Taylor and Sheila Thomas forhelpful feedback on earlier versions of this article.

The Mysteries

This presentation of Faerie Magic is acomplete replacement for Faerie Magicas presented in The Wizard’s Grimoire,

Revised Edition. The spells listed therecould be converted to standard Hermetic spells,without the magnitude adjustments, if you wanted tokeep them in your saga while using these rules.

Outer Mystery: Faerie Magic

Faerie Magic is a +1 Virtue. A character cannotinitiate this virtue, or start with it at character cre-ation, unless she has been touched by the fay in someway. Anyone with a faerie virtue or flaw, includingFaerie Enmity, qualifies. Lesser contact may alsocount. Having a faerie lover would be enough, andattending a number of faerie feasts most likely wouldas well. However, simply fighting a few faeries doesnot count. The troupe must make the final decision.A maga who is touched by the fay must still be initi-ated into this mystery in the usual way.

A maga with this virtue gets the full value offaerie auras as a bonus to her magic totals, and doesnot have to roll additional botch dice. In effect, shemay treat faerie auras as if they were magic auras, formost purposes. If a maga with this virtue extracts visfrom a faerie aura, the vis is faerie-touched. This doesnot usually have any game effects, but someone whodrinks a longevity potion made with faerie-touchedvis counts as faerie-touched, and thus may initiatethis mystery.

Magi with this virtue have the Arcane KnowledgeFaerie Magic, which starts at a value of one and maybe increased like any other knowledge. This knowl-edge acts as an affinity with all spells invented usingthe Mysteries of Faerie Magic. It is not possible tolearn the Inner Mysteries without a score of at leastone in Faerie Magic.

Finally, the maga can use additional Ranges,Durations, and Targets, as follows. These categoriesmay be used in spontaneous magic by magae withFaerie Magic, subject to the limitation that sponta-neous magic may not have a duration greater thanone month (ArM4 page 69).

Road (Range): The maga may target anyone oranything on the same road or path as her. The iden-tity of roads and paths is not always clear, and thetroupe must decide if things are difficult. Two pathsmay cross each other, but two paths may not becomeone. In that case, either one path joins the second, orthe junction is actually the joining of three paths.The maga need not be able to see her target, but shemust know that it is there, unless the spell is an Intel-lego effect intended to find out if something is there.

People are only on a road if they are actuallybetween the edges of the path, at least partially.

Buildings are on a road if the primary access to thebuilding is from that road. Plants and small objectsmust be between the edges of the path.

For purposes of spell level calculation, Road isthe same level as Far.

Bargain (Duration): As in WGRE, page 137.

Fire (Duration): As in WGRE, page 137.

Until (Condition) (Duration): As in WGRE,page 137.

Year + 1 (Duration): As in WGRE, page 137.

Bloodline (Target): As in WGRE, page 137.

Arcadian Bridge (+2 Virtue)

Magi who have initiated this mystery have a clos-er link to faerie regiones, and to Arcadia. The virtuegrants two minor abilities and one major one.

First, magi with this virtue may move between thelevels of a faerie regio automatically, and may leadothers between the levels, just as if they were faeries.They are automatically aware of the presence of afaerie regio, and can see into adjacent levels of theregio if they so choose. (See ArM4 page 245 formore details.) If the maga enters Arcadia from aregio, she may choose the relative rates at which timepasses in Arcadia and the mortal world, and may leadothers there as normal. (See Faeries, pages 85-88 fordetails on Arcadia.)

Second, the maga may use Int + Faerie Lore +Faerie Magic to navigate in Arcadia. The extra bonusmeans that she rarely gets lost.

Finally, she may create ‘gates’ to and from Arca-dia. To create a gate to Arcadia, she must performsome artistic task, and generate stress die + Com +Faerie Magic + Artistic Ability + Aura. Aura bonus-es and penalties are taken from the Faerie column ofthe realm interaction table. The Ease Factor foropening a gate to Arcadia is 18. For every full threepoints by which she exceeds the Ease Factor, themaga can take another person to Arcadia with her.

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Creating the gate takes as long as performing theartistic task, generally about two minutes (Diameterduration).

The artistic task may be of any sort, and need notbe performed well. If the maga has no artistic abili-ties, she gets no bonus, but she does not get a penal-ty for working unskilled. Magi might draw the gateon some convenient surface, or play music thatseems to lift you to another world, or dance fasterand faster until they vanish. The art must be madepublic in some way, but quietly reciting a poem wouldbe enough. It is not possible to see where a gate leadsbefore you use it.

Gates are not usually passages that open and waitfor people to pass through. Rather, the people tar-geted by the maga are caught up by the magic andtaken to Arcadia. Thus, it is not normally possible tosneak through an Arcadian Gate. Of course, on abotch the gate may stay open as long as it takes thewild hunt to pass through.

The gate opens at a place in Arcadia chosen bythe maga. She must make an Int + Faerie Lore +Faerie Magic roll against an appropriate Ease Factorto see if she gets it right. On a failure, she is simplysomewhere else. On a botch, she arrives somewheredangerous.

If the gate creation roll fails, the maga may tryagain. Botches on the gate creation roll may have anumber of effects. The gate may open to somewhereother than Arcadia, or the maga may summon faeriesto the mundane world, rather than travelling to them.

When creating a gate from Arcadia, the total isthe same, but uses the aura of the target locationrather than the aura of Arcadia. The process takesthe same time as opening a gate in the other direc-tion. The Ease Factor is, again, 18. The roll ispenalised depending on how well the maga knowsthe place she wants the gate to reach. If she knowsthe place intimately (e.g. her sanctum), there is nopenalty. If she knows it very well (e.g. the area aroundher covenant, the village where she grew up), thepenalty is -1. If she knows it well, and has visited sev-eral times, the penalty is -3. Examples might includea faerie forest near the covenant, or the town nearestto the covenant. A place that she has visited a fewtimes imposes a -6 penalty. The area around anothercovenant, or a local city, might qualify. A place shehas only been to once imposes a -9 penalty. It is notpossible to deliberately open a gate to a place youhave never been, but that is a likely result of a botch.

Merinita magi with this virtue do use Arcadia as ashortcut between places. It is possible to create a gateout of Arcadia before you are challenged by aguardian, as long as you do not fail the first roll.However, if you would have to beat a certain magicresistance to affect the target place with a spell, yourgate total must exceed the same amount. Note thatthe magic resistance does not penalise your roll. Forexample, creating a gate from Arcadia to a covenantyou have visited a few times has an effective EaseFactor of 24. If the Aegis of the covenant is level 24

or lower, any roll that succeeds in creating a gate willopen a passage to the covenant. If the Aegis is level25 or higher, the total must exceed that level, ratherthan the Ease Factor.

Lesser Glamour (+3 Virtue)

Lesser glamours are illusions with a significantamount of reality. A glamour of a thing has all theeffects that a real item of the same type would have.Thus, a glamour bridge can support weight, a glam-our fire can ignite parchment, and glamour wine canquench thirst. However, glamours are not real, sotheir effects are not long-lasting.

All glamours are Creo or Muto Imaginem spells.They should be noted as glamours when invented orrecorded; only magi with this virtue can learn or castsuch spells. The basic level for a lesser glamour is 20for an unliving thing and 30 for a living thing (eithertarget or effect), whether it is Creo or Muto. A level20 Creo Imaginem glamour affects all five senses,and is physically tangible. It behaves as a real item ofthat type would behave, so that flames flicker andspread, and a glamour sword can be used to strikeopponents. A level 30 Muto Imaginem glamourcould make a rock look like a horse. The horse wouldmove, make noises, smell, and possibly allow itself tobe ridden (it would also tolerate magi). Changes tothe range, duration, and target modify the level nor-mally.

Lesser glamours are no more flexible than normalformulaic spells, and tend to be less flexible than nor-mal Imaginem spells. Thus, while the Hermetic spellPhantasmal Animal creates any animal, there are manylesser glamours, one for every species of animal.However, Glamoured Horse (CrIm 30) can create anykind of horse, with tack and harness if desired. Ingeneral, use Creo and Muto spells of other forms asguidance for how broad lesser glamours should be,but remember that lesser glamour creates effectsrather than duplicating other spells.

A glamoured object is ‘really’ whatever it isunderneath. Thus, a Creo Imaginem glamour is actu-ally Imaginem, and responds to Intellego spellsappropriately, while a rock glamoured to appear as ahorse is still not a horse, and can be detected as such.Second or Faerie Sight also allows characters to knowthat something is a glamour, if they make a Per +Sight roll against an Ease Factor of half the spell lev-el. Note that, even if you know that something is alesser glamour it will still affect you as normal. Real-ising that something is a glamour does not make itvanish, even for you.

Glamours disappear under a number of condi-tions. Most obviously, they vanish when the spellduration ends. However, they also disappear ifbrought into contact with iron, or if blessed bysomeone in Holy Orders (subdeacon, deacon, priest,or bishop). Finally, if a glamour enters a DominionAura it disappears. Glamours cannot be cast in theDominion, or in Infernal auras. They can be cast inareas with no aura, and a glamour cast in anotheraura could enter an Infernal aura without vanishing.

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For obvious reasons, glamours cannot be cast oniron. However, it is possible to cast glamours of iron.

The effects of a glamour do not disappear at theend of the spell duration. So, if a scroll is burned bya glamour fire with Momentary duration, it remainsashes after that time. However, the effects of a glam-our do disappear under the other conditions. If apriest blessed the ashes of the scroll, it would reap-pear undamaged. This will require some judgmentson the part of the troupe.

The disappearance of the effects of a glamournever causes immediate death. Thus, someone whoate and drank nothing but glamour for two weeks,and was then blessed by a priest, would becomeextremely hungry and thirsty, but would not die. Ifthe glamour is no longer having an effect on some-one, then the disappearance of the effects has noeffect. Thus, if someone crosses a chasm on a glam-our bridge, and is touched with iron on the otherside, he does not disappear down the chasm. (On theother hand, someone standing on the bridge when itis touched with iron would fall.) Wounds caused byglamour disappear completely, without leaving evenscars. Lesser glamour healing (which would be MutoImaginem, because you are changing the image ofthe person being healed) prevents normal healing aslong as it is in effect, just as non-Instant Creo Corpushealing does.

If someone is killed by glamour, or takes realinjuries that only kill him because he had previouslytaken glamour injuries, then his soul and spirit areheld in Arcadia. No time passes for him, until hisremains, or part of his remains, are blessed, touchedwith iron, or taken into a Dominion aura. At thatpoint, he appears where his remains are, all glamourinjuries gone. If he was also suffering from realinjuries, they remain.

Greater Glamour (+4 Virtue)

This mystery allows the maga to invent and castspells with a new Duration, Aura. Aura is equivalentto Sun duration for the purposes of determining thelevel of the spell, and Aura duration spells may nor-mally be cast spontaneously and without vis. Theyare invented according to the normal guidelines forthe Technique and Form involved. A magus withoutthis virtue cannot even learn spells with Aura dura-tion, much less cast them.

A spell with Aura duration lasts as long as theeffect is within a magical or faerie aura. As soon asthe effect leaves such an aura, whether because theeffect moves or because the aura changes, the spellcomes to an end. As long as the duration of the spelllasts, the effect counts as natural. This means that itcannot be dispelled, that food nourishes, and thatcreated animals can reproduce. Further, being underthe effect of such a spell does not warp the targetbeyond the effect of the magic. Thus, a person trans-formed into a bird by a greater glamour wouldappear to be a natural bird, but would change back toa human being if he left the aura. Once he hadchanged back, there would be no further ill effects.

The secondary effects of Aura duration spells donot disappear when the affected things leave theaura. The results of the spell are real, so their effectsare real. Their effects were not created with Auraduration, so they persist. Thus, someone killed witha greater glamour sword stays dead, barring a miracle.A person who lives on greater glamour food for ayear does not feel hungry when he leaves the aura,although if he tries to take greater glamour supplies,they vanish. Healing from Aura duration spells is aspecial case. A person healed with Aura durationheals naturally ‘underneath’ the greater glamour, as ifhe had rolled 18+ on the wound recovery chart(ArM4 page 178). When he leaves the aura, anyinjuries which had not healed appear.

Greater glamours can be cast outside magic orfaerie auras, but they end instantly. This does noteven produce the effects of Momentary duration; theeffect is gone before it is really there. However, agreater glamour can be moved from one magic orfaerie aura to another, provided that there is no oth-er aura, or lack of aura, between them. Thus, greaterglamours can be moved between the levels of a regio,or from a magic aura to a faerie aura which directlyabuts it.

It is possible to invest greater glamours into anenchanted device. Such devices can be used by any-one, but they are very rare, because the few magi withthis virtue do not spend much time making enchant-ed items.

It is not necessary to learn to use Lesser Glamourbefore learning Greater Glamour. It is possible tocreate lesser glamours with Aura duration. Such less-er glamours are still subject to the other limits oflesser glamours; they disappear when touched byiron, and so on.

Quendalon’s Gift (+5 Virtue)

This mystery lets the maga become a faerie.The mystery teaches a special ritual, which takes a

whole year and must be performed in a Hermeticlaboratory located in a faerie aura. The maga gener-ates a lab total equal to Int + Magic Theory + FaerieMagic + Muto + Corpus (Vim requisite) + Aura, andexpends a number of pawns of faerie vis, of any Art,equal to the lab total. (This expenditure is still boundby the normal limit of Vim + Magic Theory per sea-son, but as the ritual takes four seasons this shouldnot be a problem.) Faerie vis includes any vis gath-ered in a faerie aura, and vis extracted from a faerieaura by a maga with Faerie Magic. It is not possibleto be assisted in this ritual.

After the ritual, the maga is mostly fay, with ele-ments of humanity remaining. This change has a vis-ible effect on the maga. Initiates of this mystery saythat Quendalon was the first magus to learn it, andthat his eyes became gems when he performed theritual. Other changes that are known to haveoccurred include hair turning to grass, fingernailsturning to ice, and blood turning to wine.

As a result of the change, the maga now has aFaerie Might equal to the lab total. This Might can be

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used to grant magic resistance, but it is not cumula-tive with resistance due to Forms, spells, or ParmaMagica. A maga must decide at dawn and dusk onthe source of her magic resistance for the nexttwelve hours. If the maga is unconscious at the rele-vant time, her resistance defaults to her Faerie Might.The maga can suppress her Might resistance in thesame way as she can suppress that from her Formsand Parma Magica. The Faerie Might can be used ina number of other ways. If points are spent, theyregenerate at a rate which would restore all the pointsover a twenty four hour period. Thus, a maga withFaerie Might 24 regenerates one per hour, while amagus with Faerie Might 53 regenerates one everytwenty seven minutes or so.

- Subtract (Faerie Might)/5 from each aging roll.On a failed aging roll, the maga gains a Twi-light Point, but there are no other effects.

- Magi with Faerie Might do not need to eat,drink, or breathe.

- Faeries do not tire, and the same applies tomagi with Faerie Might. When casting a spellwhich would cost fatigue, the maga insteadspends a number of Faerie Might points equalto the number already spent for each fatiguelevel that would have been lost, or one if themaga is at full might. Thus, a maga with maxi-mum might 32 and current might 27 wouldspend five points to substitute for a fatigue lev-el, bringing her current might down to 22. Ifshe waits 45 minutes before casting anotherspell, her might would rise to 23, and it wouldcost nine points. This expenditure cannot takethe maga below zero might; any effect whichwould have that effect automatically fails.Physical fatigue has no effect; the magus effec-tively has no fatigue levels, and no penalty.

- Faeries do not sleep. This gives the maga anadditional two seasons per year. However,these may not be spent on laboratory activities,as these are tied to the rhythm of the seasons.It is possible to study books, or to write books,or to learn spells from a text, but not to inventspells, create enchantments, or study from vis.

- Faerie magi may subtract their Faerie Magicscore from the number of Twilight Pointsgained in a Twilight. This subtraction mayreduce the number of points to zero. Howev-er, the maga is still in temporary Twilight.Faerie Magic does not add to rolls to controlTwilight.

A maga with Faerie Might gains no benefit froma longevity potion, but does gain any bonus to agingrolls due from faerie blood. It is possible to repeatthe ritual to increase Faerie Might. However, therules are the same as if it was being performed forthe first time: a number of pawns of vis equal to thelab total are consumed, and the Faerie Might grantedis equal to the lab total. The rituals do not add to oneanother. So, if a maga first performs the ritual whenshe has a lab total of 60, it costs sixty pawns of vis

to do so, and her Faerie Might is 60. If she performsthe ritual again when she has a lab total of 70, it costsseventy pawns of vis, and her Faerie Might increasesto 70.

If a maga has faerie blood, or a similar virtue,before the ritual, all benefits of that virtue are cumu-lative with the benefits of the ritual. Thus, a magawho had the virtue Faerie-raised Merinita would notneed to spend Might points to power her sponta-neous magic, as such magae never spend fatigue forspontaneous casting.

The main disadvantage is that the maga is a faeriefor the purposes of magical defences. She cannotpass through Aeges of the Hearth if their levelexceeds her might, unless she is given a token, andwards against faeries ward against her in the sameway. People with Second Sight or Faerie Sight can tellthat she is not human on a Perception + Sight roll of9+, even if her unnatural feature is hidden.

As long as the maga has fewer than 24 TwilightPoints, she is not completely a faerie. The spark ofhumanity still burns, so she can learn, change, andcreate. Once she has 24 Twilight Points, she is entire-ly fay. Her statistics do not change, but she can nolonger learn, and thus no longer improve her Arts orabilities, nor can she learn new spells. She cannotinvent spells, nor create new enchantments, althoughshe can duplicate enchantments based on a lab text.She can still use spontaneous magic, but not to doanything truly new. Such a character is still playable asa player character, as long as the saga is full ofimmensely powerful magi. However, she would be adifficult roleplaying challenge, as she cannot learnfrom experience. She can learn names of new peo-ple, but will always assume that they will behave justlike other people she knows, even if faced with greatevidence to the contrary. It would probably be bestto retire such a character from active play.

The Mystae

The following mystery cults are merely sugges-tions. In a canonical saga, with about 800 magi in theOrder of Hermes, there are not enough magi forthem all to exist. Indeed, in such a case there areprobably only enough magi for one of the societiesto be active, if that. If you play with a larger Order,more of the cults could have a reasonable level ofmembership.

The Four Courts

Symbol: A quartered circle, sometimes with sym-bols of the four courts of faerie in the quarters.

Motto: In Varietate Iunctio (In diversity we arejoined)

Patrons: The four great faerie monarchs ofBright Winter, Dark Winter, Dark Summer, andBright Summer. Or, at least, very powerful fay whoclaim those roles.

House Affiliations: Almost entirely Merinita,with some Ex Miscellanea.

Origin Myth: When Quendalon entered Arcadiato seize the secrets of the fay, he learned the greatest

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secret of all: that humans all have the power tobecome faeries, and leave mortality behind them. Hebrought that knowledge back with him from Arcadia,and turned the House of Merinita towards the fay, sothat magi would be ready for the greater secretstaught by this society.

Levels of Initiation: Members of the FourCourts take a feudal rank upon themselves. There isno central authority to hand them out, but membersare expected to assume ranks commensurate withtheir level of power. The rank of King or Queen isreserved for those who have become faeries throughinitiation.

Goals and Practices: All magi have the power toleave mortality behind and join the fay, and this soci-ety guides magi along the path. As human beings arediverse, so are the members of this society. Never-theless, members are required to accept one another— internecine squabbles are not tolerated. The soci-ety has no shared goals other than that of helping itsmembers to reach faerie.

Any magus who has been touched by the fay mayseek initiation into this society, and any maga whohas been initiated may guide the initiation of anoth-er.

Virtues: Cyclic Magic (Var.), Faerie Magic (+1),Affinity with Faerie (+2), Arcadian Bridge (+2),Lesser Glamour (+3), Greater Glamour (+4), Quen-dalon’s Gift (+5).

Affinity with Faerie: This affinity adds to all spellscast on faeries or faerie items. It does not add tospells cast in a faerie aura if they are cast on non-faerie things. Characters with faerie blood count asfaeries; merely being touched by the fay does notqualify.

Preferred Ordeals: Good Works, InitiationQuest, Prohibition, Sacrifice of Power (flaws relatingto iron or the Dominion, Cyclic Magic)

The Iron Rule

Symbol: An iron measuring rod.Motto: Unus Regulus Sub Deo (One Rule Under

God)Patron: St Dunstan. (An English saint who

worked as a blacksmith and forced the devil to leavehim by using iron tongs.)

House Affiliations: Tremere, Tytalus, Flambeau,Jerbiton, Ex Miscellanea.

Origin Myth: In the beginning, God set man atthe head of all creation. Some of the angels resentedthis. Lucifer, and the angels who became demons,actively plotted the downfall of man. Others, whobecame faeries, merely refused to serve. When Adamate the apple, God cast man from Eden, and therebel angels from heaven. The Incarnation of Christonce again linked the human and divine natures, andnow man can once again establish his dominion overthe rebel angels. Once this dominion is complete,even the winds and waves will obey mankind, as wasintended at the beginning. The Gift is a sign that aparticular person has a stronger touch of the divinenature than others, as is seen in the way that sinfulpeople find it hard to bear the presence of the Gift-ed, and so magi should lead the way in the reclama-tion of man’s birthright.

Levels of Initiation: The Iron Rule uses degreesof ordination. In order, they are doorkeeper, lector,exorcist, acolyte, subdeacon, deacon, priest, bishop.

Goals and Practices: The Iron Rule aim to bringall spirits, other than the angels, under the control ofman. They are a Christian group, but would beregarded as deeply heretical if the Church were toknow of their existence. At present, the societystrongly discourages any attempt to bind demons.Demonic spirits are regarded as actively hostile, andthus extremely dangerous. Faeries merely resent con-trol, and are therefore the preferred targets. Howev-er, the society does believe that its members shouldultimately control demons. The Quaesitores do notknow this, and would not be happy if they found out.

Recruitment is normally of filius by parens. How-ever, the society does accept new members whoprove themselves worthy, normally by binding sever-al spirits to their will.

Virtues: Faerie Magic (+1), Hermetic Theurgy(+1), Affinity with Faerie (+2), Arcadian Gate (+2),Affinity with Rego (+4)

Preferred Ordeals: Initiation Quest, GoodWorks, Sacrifice of Power (weakness in the Domin-ion, signifying humility before God)

The Last Commission

Symbol: Two trees growing entwined together,often with leaves of two types and a golden fruitgrowing on a common branch.

Motto: The Art is Unifinished.Patrons: Bonisagus, Quendalon.House Affiliations: Bonisagus, Merinita.Origin Myth: Before passing into Final Twilight,

Bonisagus spoke to the magi gathered around him.He spoke of a life’s work only half done. Flambeau

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replied first, swearing to bring every wizard into theOrder. As he left, Bonisagus shook his head sadly.Then Jerbiton promised to bring the benefits of theOrder to the mundane world. As he left, Bonisagusremained grieved. Tremere promised to forge theOrder into a tool of virtue. But still Bonisagus wassaddened. The other Founders all made their prom-ises, but Bonisagus was unmoved. At last, Quendalonalone remained.

“What are the mundanes, the wilderness, or con-trol, compared to the Art? But how can the Art beunfinished? It touches everything.” In reply, Bonisa-gus shook his head, and closed his eyes sorrowfully.Quendalon remained silent, thinking as the greatestof the Founders slipped further into Twilight. AsBonisagus released his last grip on this world, Quen-dalon looked up and spoke.

“The whole realm of Faerie is beyond us. I willbring the fay within the Art.” Bonisagus’s face lit upin a smile as he vanished from mortal realms. Quen-

dalon left, determined to carry out the last commis-sion of the Founder.

Goals and Practices: The Last Commission aimto bring the powers of faerie within the ambit ofHermetic Magic. They are unusually open for a mys-tae group, as their aims are perfectly acceptable to therest of the Order, and they welcome help. Most oftheir members are drawn from Houses Merinita andBonisagus, but other researchers are welcome.

Levels of Initiation: The Last Commission hasno formal ranks. Members are respected based onhow much they have achieved.

Virtues Taught: Faerie Magic (+1), Affinity withFaerie (+2), Lesser Glamour (+3), Greater Glamour(+4).

Preferred Ordeals: Good Works (items andtexts which advance the union between Hermeticmagic and faerie power), Initiation Quest (to discov-er information leading to insights into a possibleunion)

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News from the Line

Editor : April 2002

I’d like to start this column by thanking Eric forgiving me the forum for it. I shall try to bring youthe latest and greatest Ars Magica news fromAtlas, and provide some insight into what I’m

thinking about the line. I would also be happy toanswer questions: send them to:

arsmagica@dchart.demon.co.ukand mention that you would like me to answer themin this column. This didn’t work for either of the lasttwo Line Editors, but I guess it’s worth a try.

The first bit of news is that I (David Chart) amnow the Ars Magica Line Editor. I started a one-yearfreelance contract at the beginning of this year. Thecontract is for one year so that Atlas and I can bothsee how it works out, as even in this information agethere are still difficulties involved in managing a linefor a company located several thousand miles away.Since I have yet to turn over my first book as LineEditor, neither of us really knows how things will go,although there have been no real problems so far.

Talking of books, fans of Ars Magica may havenoticed that it has been a while since Atlas publishedany books for the game. That is about to change.

First, Michaël de Verteuil’s adventure, The Bishop’s

Staff, is at the printers as I write this, and should reachstores in May, barring disasters. I don’t know muchabout this book, as it is not one that I have had todeal with as Line Editor. So I’m quite looking for-ward to seeing it as well.

The next Ars Magica product will be The Black

Monks of Glastonbury, by David Chart. I signed the

contract for this book before Atlas offered me theLine Editor’s job, and I will not be responsible forediting and project management on it. Part of thereason is that this book will be part of Atlas’s Corio-lis line, which includes statistics for d20 alongsidestatistics for one of Atlas’s game lines. I shouldemphasise that this is not the way that future bookswill go — there may be more Coriolis books, butthere are, at present, no plans to include d20 statisticsin most Ars Magica supplements, and we are certain-ly not planning to take the game to d20.

Timothy Ferguson’s Sanctuary of Ice is still on theschedule to be published, but we don’t know when.It has run into delays in the final edit, and it will bepublished when it is ready, as a nice surprise for allour fans.

After that, we move on to the books for which Iam responsible as Line Editor. My contract calls forfour books, most of which will be published in 2003.One of those books will be Living Legends. The first,however, will be Blood and Sand: The Tribunal of the

Levant, by Niall Christie. This has now completedplaytest, and it’s looking good. We have yet to writethe advertising copy for it, so I’ll spare you that, butI think this book will finally do justice to a long-neg-lected part of Mythic Europe.

Although the Living Legends deadline will probablyhave passed before you read this (it’s April 30th 2002,just in case it hasn’t), the Covenants Project will still beopen for submissions, and I’m always interested insupplement proposals, especially ones that follow theguidelines. The guidelines and any special projectsare on the Atlas website, at http://www.atlas-games.com/arm_submit.html

Stories for Elder Magiby Timothy Ferguson

One day, your magi will become so power-ful that, together, no mundane force canstand against them. Many sagas collapseat this point, because it is difficult to coax

such powerful characters out of their laboratories.Drama requires conflict, and combat is always theeasiest style of conflict to write sagas around, but ifyour magi have reached this exalted age, you need toget sneaky, and design conflict that isn’t simple hos-tility over resources.

You need to strike at the character’s ego.

LegacyAlthough their motivations vary, it is a rare elder

who does not dream of an accomplishment which,deliberately or co-incidentally, will illuminate theirname in the history of the Order. Legacies form thebasis of extended story arcs, as the magus first seeksthe means for, then the realisation of their dream.Sometimes an entire covenant of Elders will co-operate to produce their opus, but it’s not unusual fora group to assist each other in a basketful of projects,each of which has significance to a particular magus.

The Research ProjectProjects are great works of magic that will change

the future of the Order. Generally the project is envi-sioned by a research magus, and requires an exten-sively resourced covenant. Stories for those complet-ing the Project include:

Excavating guaranteed insight

The area of Roman influence, and Hermetic set-tlement, is large and contains layers of history, inwhich cultural and magical practices change. Magican develop guaranteed insight by seeking out traces

of magical traditions that could perform effects sim-ilar to those that they are researching. This is difficult,because it’s not enough to know that an effect waspossible; the magus needs to watch the process thatbrings it about. Since so many traditions have beendriven to extinction, the magus may need to redis-cover the lost techniques of another theory of mag-ic. If this is impossible, they may find elements ofmaterial culture reflecting, esoteric symbols concern-ing or cautions against self-destructive applicationsof, the power they seek.

Maintaining their resource base

Many magi neglect their covenant’s resource base,wrongly believing that once their breakthrough iscomplete, their current problems will becomeinsignificant. Others know that their covenant isfalling into Winter, but believe its resources are suffi-cient for them to complete their project, then rebuildtheir economic position. This places additional strainon their sodales, who need to take time away frombuilding their own legacies to patch up the covenant.They may also need to restrain their sodales, sincemagi working on projects are sometimes thought-lessly destructive, ruining renewable sources ofincome to give them the few extra rooks of vis theyneed to proceed towards their goal.

Covenant founding

Founding a covenant is difficult, dangerous,thankless, and slows the rate of the magus’s develop-ment. Younger magi often desire the relative inde-pendence of living in a young covenant. Since theyare used to the genteel penury of apprenticeship or arough living as dogsbodies to a council of elders,they aren’t giving up the luxuries of an Alpine life toseek personal satisfaction on the frontier. Elder magi

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take a little more prompting before they put theirpossessions in a wagon and seek the wilds.

Elders found covenants for a variety of reasons.Some Elder magi found new covenants because theyhave no other honourable choice. An ostrakon (amagus expelled from the Greater Alps Tribunal, seethe upcoming supplement Sanctuary of Ice) could seeka powerful covenant in the frontier Tribunals and askfor membership, but would then be the servant ofthose less than his equals. An experienced maguswhose covenant is destroyed, or falls, faces similarproblems. Others discover a resource that they wishto exploit to the exclusion of all others, and thisrequires the protection offered by a covenant ofyounger, disposable magi. Some wish to ingrain anew lifestyle into the culture of the Order, and foundnew covenants as experiments in social engineering.These often fall into traditional patterns after thefirst few generations.

The most popular “new culture” is the springrabble, which has the social structure of a streetgang. Ostensibly democratic, spring rabbles are actu-ally led by a single, forceful, personality. These usual-ly collapse after a decade, as personality conflictsdeepen, and nearby Summer or Autumn covenantsoffer positions to their neighbour’s most effectivemembers.

Another popular form is autocracy with a partic-ular elder at its head. Strongly territorial, or highlymisanthropic, magi often found new covenants onthe flimsiest of pretexts. They surround themselveswith useful, but unthreatening sodales, and theircovenants rarely long outlast them. The structuresthey leave behind are prime sites for later attempts atcovenant-founding, provided one of their underlingsrecords how to bypass their magical defences. Other-wise, these become Hermetic wastelands, where onlythe brave tread, in search of lost treasures.

There are other social structures possible, andmany have been attempted at various times in thehistory of the Order. The basic flaw in many of

these systems is a failure to understand the pressuresthat lead most Hermetic covenants to adopt a sort ofapathetic, aristocratic style. Other systems continueonly through the goodwill of those aged magi withsufficient power to remake them, and the conven-tional style is a common compromise between thepeople with the ability to reshape the covenant’s cul-ture. Other compromises are possible, and some aresuccessful, but in many of these covenants, once thesocial visionary dies, even those who support thebasic scheme differ about who has the wisdom andauthority to interpret their charter properly. Success-ful new covenants are rare, not simply because theirneighbours would often prefer they fell, but becausetheir success requires an intergenerational consensusabout what is important in the life of an Hermeticmagus, how to get it, and who rations happinesswhen it is in short supply.

Parents and ChildrenSome magi seek atavistic immortality by training

apprentices. These subunits within a house are calledlineages. Most are simply based on filial interest andaffection, but some contain formal structures thatemphasise the political position of a chosen member.Often the favoured member is the most senior, butsometimes the one most similar to the founder, orthe founder’s ideal, as measured by traditional tests, ispreferred. The founder of a lineage is often substan-tially weaker than other magicians of similar age,because they invest so much of their time and otherresources into the training of their apprentices.Simultaneously, these apprentices are usually morepowerful than other magi of equivalent age.

Developing a lineage is a difficult process, forseveral reasons. The magus needs to locate suitablechildren for training. These children need to survivenot only apprenticeship but also the arduousness ofearly Hermetic life, including victimisation by themaster’s powerful enemies. These filii must then beprevented from seeking a personal vision, incompat-ible with the founder’s. Finally, a system of succession

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Nature or Nurture?

Affinities emerge in children either naturally, orthrough training. The problem with this is that amaster selecting a gifted child cannot be entirely surehow their wild gift and training will interact. For thisreason, many magi prefer to train children yet toexpress their Gift, selecting them for their “magicalair”, the property of magi that alarms mundanes andanimals, particularly dogs or horses.

Children with expressed abilities are slightly eas-ier to train, provided the magus can find a way tolink the child’s intuitive understanding of what it isthey are doing to the broader Hermetic Theory ofmagic. In those cases where this is impossible, achild’s early experiences act as a psychological block,which impedes the development of a related art orcombination of form and technique. Sometimesthese children are mind-altered, to remove their

memories of their minor magical powers, a processthat drives their abilities into latency. They often re-emerge after traumatic incidents, such as Twilight.

Sometimes masters profoundly alter the psychesof their apprentices, for example by removing theirmemories of life before adoption. In some cases,this is to remove evidence of diabolism or anotherforbidden practice. As with latent abilities, thesememories sometimes resurface after traumatic inci-dents. Most magi dismiss them as irrelevances, buttheir re-entry into a strained pater-filius relationshipis sometimes cause for parricide.

Characters selecting a child should describe tothe storyguide the qualities they seek and the teststhey administer. Sagas will vary on how clean a slatethe Gift of a child is, with some allowing the playerto select all the apprentice’s graduation virtues andflaws, while others will allow the storyguide to present

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the vast majority. Troupes should be especially care-ful not to allow characters, other than those withCharmed Lives or appropriate Destinies, to find per-fect apprentices. The resistance of the gauntletedapprentices to slavishly following their master’swhims is a central source of conflict and dramawithin stories for this style of legacy. Before design-ing a magus-offspring, or partially-trained appren-tice, confirm which method you are using with therest of your troupe.

Virtues reduxFrom the perspective of characters within lin-

eages, a few of the virtues and flaws take on new sig-nificance.

Close Family Ties (Hermetic)

Characters with close Hermetic ties have aninformal network of “relatives” whom they assist,and who, in turn, assist them. Characters who selectthis virtue should chose personality trait Family Tiewith a value of between -1 and +3 representing thedegree to which they support this clan.

Characters within the family will not place them-selves in serious danger for each other, but will tendto vote in each other’s favour at Tribunals (other fac-tors being close to equal), will trade vis at “familyrate” and will occasionally send useful items to eachother as gifts. They also gather for infrequent specialoccasions, and it is unusual for characters to stayaway.

Heir

Many magi sign away their individual property totheir covenant, as a condition of admittance. Amongother advantages, this prevents them from leavingduring trying times. Some covenants, however, allowtheir members to maintain limited or completerights to property, and these are inheritable. TheHeir virtue can be purchased several times.

The Heir virtue should increase in value after thepayoff. That is, a character inheriting books or amagic item should gain more than what they wouldhave received had they chipped the point in duringcharacter creation. Extremely valuable legacies arepossible, but Storyguides should remember that theHeir virtue is a tether. Disobedient children don’tinherit, and the testator can change their will at anytime.

The most valuable thing most magi might inher-it is their parens’ body, but this is an uncertain lega-cy. Since experienced magicians contain vast quanti-ties of vis, their corpses are extremely valuable. Ifthe parens passes into Twilight, their body is some-times lost. Similarly, if the parens becomes an Arch-magus, the Council is willing to demand their corpsewith force of arms. Finally, a magus declaring War isallowed to claim the property of his fallen foe in rec-ompense for the slight that led to the declaration ofhostilities. In this case, the corpse is also lost. All ofthese caveats aside, the expressed designation of amagus as recipient of the magus’s body is an asset,and is even tradable. House Tytalus’s members

briskly exchange “corpse markers” as their stakesrise and fall.

In some few Helvetian chapters, a chair has beenset aside for the most senior descendant of a notablehistorical figure. These chairs are rarely founded inthe modern Order, because they encourage fratri-cide, but the handful that remain are covered by theHeir virtue. Magi so appointed are allowed to bepresent at Greater Alpine Tribunal meetings, butthey are forbidden to speak. This is to allow them toget used to the Tribunal setting before they havepower to exercise. Such magi are called “footstools”after a pun made in the late ninth century, the exactwording of which has been lost.

Higher Purpose

A magus cannot select founding a lineage as aHigher Purpose. That’s a Driving Goal. Desire tosustain a lineage is a suitable goal for the purpose ofthis Virtue, but storyguides should be careful whenallowing magi to select it for their apprentices. Sucha driven, visionary child may notice that his masterhas feet of clay. After the master’s death, they arelikely to “reinterpret” the teachings of their hon-oured ancestor. The most driven Hermetic appren-tices understand that some causes need martyrs, andaren’t always above volunteering their teachers.

Ghostly Warder (Hermetic)

An Hermetic ghostly warder arises when a magusdriven by a Virtue or Flaw (such as Higher Purpose)dies without seeing their work complete. Theyreturn to guide their charges, and shape their lives.Hermetic Ghostly Warders can teach the Arts, andthe value of this Virtue is dependant on their Artscores. It’s important to remember that death traumamay addle spirits, so the character’s master may nothave all of the faculties they had in life.

A player whose character dies cannot select thatcharacter as the ghostly warder for its replacementwithout the storyguide’s permission. Ghostlywarders of this type are always NPCs and are unlike-

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ly to be characterised in the way their previous play-er finds accurate. This is because death simplifies,almost caricaturises, spirits. All active ghosts aremonomaniacs, because when they cease being driv-en, they fade away.

An Hermetic Ghostly Warder costs +5 for amagus who died within 30 years of initiation, +6 fora magus who died between 31 and 60 years aftergauntlet and +7 for a magus who died more than 60years after gauntlet. These values assume the Warderhas one Art score (of 20, 25 or 30 respectively) thatthey are willing and able to teach. For every addedArt that the warder is willing to teach, add +1. If youwant a character that can teach across a broad rangeof Arts, don’t buy it as a personal virtue; select it asa variant of the covenant’s library at creation. If theghost is unwilling or unable to teach any Art, thenreduce these scores by 1.

Magic item

Magic items owned by a recently-Gauntlettedmagus are usually found or produced by their parens.This means that the lab text for creating the item, itspowers and triggering actions, are all known to theparens and whoever has access to their memories orpapers. A very few parentes, in House Tremere andTytalus especially, hide additional effects in theirmagic items, which allow them to execute appren-tices who later prove dangerous or uncooperative.

Mentor and Training

Most magi retain only distant contact with theirparens for the first few decades after gauntlet. Thisis one of the stages that magi go through as theygrow up, and is recognised and accepted in Hermet-ic culture. A few retain close links to their teachers,for example by remaining in the same covenant.These can be selected as mentors and trainers, but inmany houses this is considered a childish practice, anextension of the infantile stage of apprenticeship.House Tremere is an obvious exception.

A second option, common in certain houses, isentering the mentorship of the character’s eldestHermetic sibling. This allows the heir of the leader-ship of the lineage to develop strong personal con-nections with his or her contemporaries. Eldest sib-lings have less free time, and fewer resources, thantheir masters.

Protection

Protection is an extension of the reputation ofthe protector. Where their reputation does notreach, this virtue is of little immediate value. It doespurchase you an avenger, should your character bekilled. Protectors are not suicidal, but are willing tocarry through threats of retribution against thosewho harm the character, provided the likelihood ofsuccess is high.

A character’s parens can serve as their protector,provided they are sufficiently belligerent, but theyare likely to be influential only among Hermeticmagi, and can be called on only in emergencies.Much as a character whose patron is a bishop cannot

expect this to discomfit a dragon, and can expect itto be of only limited effectiveness when ambushedby faeries, so a character with a magical protectorshould expect little assistance with problems con-cerning local nobility or the Church. An obviousexception here are parentes from House Jerbiton,who are of use in mundane settings, but are oftenless useful than, for example, a Flambeau masterduring a Wizard’s War.

Magical Animal Companion

Recently gauntleted magi who have magical ani-mal companions have often been given them bytheir parens. These animals are often relatives of themaster’s familiar. Magi are usually psychologicallysimilar to their parens, so they are suited to a similarfamiliar anyway. Further, most parentes use familiarsas childminders during that athletic, adventurousperiod during early puberty when apprentices aresuch a bother, and this tend to imprint deeply.

The large numbers of familiars, Bjornaer magi,faerie animals and breeding programmes whichcovenants gather have led, in several cases, to thefoundation of extended families of intelligent ani-mals, each linked to a House or Lineage. A particu-larly promising juvenile is paired to an apprentice asa companion, in the hope that they will formalise thebond after the Gauntlet. The oldest animal lineage isthe Wolves of Coeris, who are descended from Tre-mere’s familiar. The Black and Tabby prides, centredat Valnastium and Harco respectively, also claimdescent from a Founder’s familiar, but have kept lessconclusive genealogical documentation. They dohave far more Bjornaer ancestors than the wolves.

Flaws redux

Black Sheep

The basic flaw for a magus who is trying toescape a lineage, this flaw is only appropriate if therest of your family has wiped its hands of you, andattacks you only when you make yourself irritating.For vengeful families, review the Enemies flaw.

Driving Goal

The desire to found a lineage is a Driving Goal.Magi whose paters have this Flaw are often Tor-mented. Some, alternatively, find their masterstremendously self-sacrificing, limiting their ownstudies to produce magical items, longevity potionsand new members for the new lineage.

Enemies

The flaw for those who have annoyed their fam-ily beyond simple torment, the Enemies flaw doesn’t

needs to be developed which neither incites intrafa-milial hatred nor encourages patricide.

Mortal politics

Some magi want to remake European politics.For various reasons, mortal institutions are surpris-ingly resilient. Killing a single nobleman will delay apolicy, perhaps, but the rationale for his decision actsalmost like a living thing, hovering over the vest-ments of his office, waiting for a new vessel to pos-sess. Once a new nobleman takes office, then, farmore often than not, the policy will also seem wise tohim, and the magi will either have to depend on seri-al murder, corrupting the institution or creating newinstitutions.

Serial murder is cheap, difficult to prove, and,used appropriately, buys a great deal of time. Killingkings is more difficult than murdering minor nobili-ty, but child-rulers are particularly useful for mostHermetic purposes, since regency councils are eitherconservative or wracked with infighting. In thosestates where a single relative acts as regent, civil warfollowing succession is usual, which gives Hermeticassassins additional cover. Sometimes magi are fortu-

nate, and churn through noblemen until they find afellow interested in some other policy, which dis-tracts attention from whatever the magi are defend-ing.

Corrupting mundane institutions is difficult,because most of them are already debased. Trying toinfluence the selection of royal officers is a popularsport, but is difficult precisely because so many peo-ple are meddling that no plan can encompass all vari-ables. Influencing the selection of local religious offi-cials is even more difficult, because even minornobility are players at this level, and sometimes theHoly Spirit makes its presence felt and turns all plansto ashes, by apparent co-incidence. That being said,magi have some success as puppeteers.

The most valuable lure offered by covenants isthe longevity potion. Many covenants lie about itseffects, suggesting that if their pawn betrays them,the suspended age will crash down upon them in aninstant, withering them like an autumn leaf. Othermagical favours, minor to the Order but of intensesignificance to mundanes, include charms againstmisfortune (often spurious), love philtres, contracep-

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necessarily mean that the character’s family are will-ing to commit murder, but they certainly desire thatall of the character’s ventures fail. It is important todiscuss this Flaw with your fellow players beforeselecting it.

Favours and vows

Sometimes debts are inherited along with goods.Several lineages owe favours to various powerfulindividuals or groups. These are recorded in treatieswitnessed by Quaesitores, or are noted in the Periph-eral Code. They either lie silently waiting for a des-perate magus to cash his marker, or are traded open-ly, as commodities that a line can buy back when ithas the resources.

Vows are also passed through the generations,usually because the wording of the original agree-ment binds the magus to train apprentices who willcontinue his service after his death. Vows can beforced upon descendants by the founder of a line-age, or can be inflicted as a form of Hermetic retri-bution. Some vows contain concluding states otherthan success. For example a vow may force a line ofFlambeau to never fight a certain Tytalus magus, orhis descendants for seven generations, unless theyengage in diabolism, or declare Wizard’s War on amagus of the Flambeau line. See the Obligation flawfor another possible Vow.

Storyguides interested in a saga set around fulfill-ing vows and repaying favours might find Noble

House by James Clavell instructive.

Haunted

The equivalent of Hermetic Ghostly Warder, thisspirit does not like the character it is warding, orfeels it should completely redefine the character’slifestyle, to bring out their obvious potential, or helpthem meet their manifest destiny. These hauntings

cost somewhere from -4 to -6 depending on theghost’s age at death. Add 1, reducing the value of theflaw, if the ghost is possessive enough that it wouldprefer others not kill the character, and is willing tomake minor efforts to reduce the harm they sufferto, for example, torture or permanent disfigurement.Shouting at Hermetic ghosts will not make them goaway.

Storyguides should be careful not to allow play-ers to select this flaw, design a haunt similar to acharacter they’d like to play, and then cave in to theghost’s demands. A storyguide ambushed by thismethod should make the ghost a perfectionist. Noamount of “giving in” is sufficient for a drivenghost, and the dead are not always rational.

Obligation

Certain lineages enforce quasi-feudal loyalty to aprimary descendant of the Founder, a mixture ofthe Obligation and Vow flaws. A character takingthis flaw loses about a season per year to his duties.Once the character matures they are likely to be con-sulted by the line’s ruler about major decisions,although the form and degree of the consultationvary by line. Unlike the Tremere, who turn their lackof a sigil into a virtue once they succeed at over-coming their masters, elder obligatees do not losethis flaw, unless they become the ruler of the line, ormake a deal with the ruler to reduce their service totoken.

Lineage Plagued by Supernatural Entity

A family plagued by a supernatural entity cankeep better track of their foe than an individual, andcan arrange re-enforcements for decisive strikesagainst sites which the foe values. For a magus witha Plagued lineage, subtract one from the cost of thisflaw.

tives and scrying devices. The Venice Agreement,which limits the power of magical items that can betraded to mundanes, has developed widespreadacceptance in the Order. Items which breach it aresometimes designed with Watching Wards whichdestroy the object, the puppet, or both, should Intel-lego spells be cast upon them. Although this givesevidence of Hermetic involvement, careful applica-tion destroys evidence effectively.

Creating new institutions is difficult, becausemundane political structures reflect underlying eco-nomic principles. Medieval Europe’s economy isbased around the provision of a professional class ofwarriors, supported by the peasantry. A new institu-tion needs to economically support defensive mili-tary force, and entrust the tools of war with a seg-ment of the population. The most popular, andlongest lasting, solution is to go back to the tribal sys-tem, where every farmer is expected to own aweapon and know how to use it. This style is popu-lar in the Western Alps, since the excellent defensivegeography makes knights less useful than elsewhere.

The second problem is that the Church supportsthe concept of the division of society into those whowork, those who war, and those who pray. Democra-cy, although theoretically practiced in the selection ofbishops, is anathema to the Church, and the teachingof democratic principles is, with certain exceptions,considered heretical. Other institutions developed bymagi are likely to be equally impure.

House politicsEach House distributes power differently,

although most have a system that allows some sort of

consultation with house members. Status is built upby publicised, meritorious activity and through per-sonal alliances. The main barrier to attaining politicalinfluence within your own House is that it’s filledwith equally powerful, equally determined, equallyintelligent egomaniacs.

Many Houses have officers who deal with someelement of the House’s administration. Most ofthese officers live at the Domus Magnae. In otherTribunals, some Houses select, or approve, the leaderof house covenants, and many have a single officerwho acts as a representative of the Primus, sortingout local difficulties and arranging blocs of votes forTribunals. These offices are as difficult to attain aseach House makes them, and have the powers thatare assigned by the Primi.

Gaining office is only the beginning of the diffi-culties faced by magi seeking political influence with-in their House. They also need to gain the attentionand respect of their fellow members, which is madedifficult by geographic spread, the Hermetic habit ofequating power with wisdom and, in some Houses,uniformity of focus. Finally, in some Houses, it isonly possible to climb upward by treading on thecrushed reputations, or charred corpses, of one’srivals.

To gain power within their House, magi need towork toward some goal, other than political power,that the members of their house value. They need tochoose a second legacy, and then play double-or-nothing, progressing both toward it, and towardpower in the House, their progress in one fuellingtheir progress in the other. This parallel programmeis a weakness that the magus’s political rivals canexploit, but each of them also has a second pro-gramme, which the player character can disrupt,threaten, or assist. Coalitions, based either on gen-uine respect or convenience, are common, and theshifting network of alliances and the relative powerof each of the players need constant monitoring.

Hermetic politics

The Order acts as a cohesive whole only rarely,but on those few occasions, it is a nigh-irresistibleforce. Every seven years, a Tribunal-wide project canbe implemented. Every thirty-three years, the basicrules that govern how magi interact with each other,and with the powers of the mythic world, are rein-terpreted or changed. A magus seeking to influenceHermetic politics needs to lay substantial ground-work before these key meetings take place.

The counteractant for extraordinary political vic-tory is conciliation. For maximum effect, the GrandTribunal needs to put the majority of its moral andlegal force behind a single grand scheme. Allowingthe Tribunal to place equal emphasis on the 50 mat-ters that are bought before it ensures that no judge-ment will have the force to sweep the Order along anew course. Context problems, described below,sometimes sharpen the focus of the Order, allowingfor a unified response, but generally the vast political

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might of the Grand Tribunal is exhausted on minordecisions which keep the Hermetic peace, reducingfriction between the lesser Tribunals.

Most Grand Tribunals end with a handful ofserious modifications of the Peripheral Code. Eachof these is extremely important, and to sponsor suchan action to fulfilment is an accomplishment, butusually these have the effect of maintaining the sta-tus quo. It’s not a minor thing to maintain the peacewithin the Order, but it’s unlikely to be somethingthat will see the magus remembered for generations.

Some Grand Tribunals conclude with a series oftiny, intensely personal, victories for an incoherentcluster of magi. Although these are not, of them-selves, significant to the history of the Order, theyregularly grant resources, or remove obstacles,toward one of the other Legacies. Politics becomesan investment, almost a gamble, where the magusslows their progress toward their real goal, insteadcultivating political power, in the hope that this willmake later progress, on the legacy, sufficiently quick-er that the delay is justified.

The archmagiOf the magi in the Order, some thirty are

acknowledged as having achieved a special masteryof the Arts. Although their position lacks any formalpower, it carries vast implied menace. To be an arch-magus is to be a member of the Hermetic equivalentof the local business club. Although it has no formalpowers, it has tremendous influence through theconcerted action of its members. It allows unparal-leled opportunities for networking: the constructionof alliances with those powerful enough to maketheir will extant.

To become an archmagus is extremely difficult:such clubs are useful because they are exclusive.Many archmagi never grant the title to another,demonstrating peerlessness in a single facet of mag-ic. Others grant the title so often that they flavour theentire Council, hence the gradual rise of an etiquette

that limits the number of successors one can inductto six, or even five. It is possible for a magus who hasselected their challenge foolishly to protect their rep-utation by arranging dummy challenges.

Since they need to face only one challenger, oftheir own choice, annually, it’s simple to slip a cat’spaw onto the list, preventing a loss. Challengers oftenfight or bribe each other, to encourage withdrawals,so the cat’s paw must be able to defend himself fromother, more ardent, competitors. The response ofthe Council’s members to this behaviour varies withthe popularity of the transgressor, but is sometimescovertly encouraged. It isn’t in the Council’s interestto have a cluster of substandard entrants initiated,since each of these would also engender inferior ini-tiates. The Council persecutes, and individual mem-bers sometimes declare war upon, mediocre magiwho achieve membership. Potential challengers areaware of this, and seriously consider not only if theycan defeat a certain magus, but also if their peers willaccept them afterwards.

The Council of Archmagi forms a catalogue ofaptitude, from which the Order can select agents intimes of crisis. Although the archmagi do not takeorders from the Quaesitores, it’s not unusual forthem to request assistance with a certain matter relat-ed to the archmagus’s challenge arts. Many magi findit difficult to refuse pleas that begin by emphasisingthat the Order faces a threat, and that the magus hasbeen asked to assist because all know that no other ishis equal.

Many other things are rumoured of the archma-gi. An activity that seeds many myths is their customof removing the corpses of initiates. At a minimum,these corpses would contain substantial quantities ofvis, and might be Honoured Dead, corpses whichproduce vis. Their ghosts might be used as a panel ofexperts, consulted much as the Criamon Primi are.Even more fanciful stories, about reincarnation,ghosts bound in familiars, demon worship, and other

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exotica, circulate amongst the apprentices of theOrder.

The archmagi have no badge of office, or formalsymbol for their grouping used to identify it to out-siders. This is a form of inverse ostentation: the arch-magi are so powerful they need no symbol, and oth-ers are expected to know who they are. Persistentgossip indicates that they have ceremonial garmentsthat adorn them during their meetings. Robes of var-ious colours and animal masks, possibly Egyptian inappearance, have been pictured in poetic and fiction-al works describing Conclaves of the Council. These,it is further supposed, mark some form of internalhierarchy. If such robes exist, the Legates who takepossession of the body of a dead archmagus removethem. The Legates have some private system ofknowing that an archmagus has passed on, whichleads, again, to speculation.

Context Problems: Tentatively

Identified

Context problems, to borrow a term from Iain M.Banks, are those that arise from outside the para-digm, or worldview, of the magi. They are difficult tocounter because they include elements which make

no sense to the magi, or which exceed the experienceof the Order. Magi who resolve context problemsare the heroes in the history of the Order, but this isa legacy for which it is difficult to prepare. Thosedefending the Order from unknown threats are, nec-essarily, reactive.

Forward thinking, or morbid, magi have identi-fied a handful of long-term context problems whichthe Order might be facing. None have demonstratedthat these are brewing crises, and many, more opti-mistic, magi feel that specific, preventative prepara-tion in one or more of these fields is a waste ofresources. In those few cases where consensus isbroad, no magus has yet made the revolutionary leapof intuition that demonstrates a solution.

The Old Ones

Many magi believe that they are descended froman ancient race that is gone for now, but not forever.They see not only threats, but also opportunities, inseeking out, and possibly awakening, these antedilu-vian progenitors. This legend becomes a solid con-text problem when someone finds a clue or hint thatmakes the return of the Old Ones more than a the-oretical scenario. Characters overcome this contextproblem by working out what the Old Ones are, how

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they are related to Hermetic magi, and what theeffect of their return will be. They need then toresolve the crisis by either releasing or containingthese enigmatic ancients.

The Myth of the Mundanes

The Dominion is erasing magical aurae and visharvesting sites as it swells with the mundane popu-lation. This might become a serious context problemwhen senior Hermetic magi begin preying on theirweaker sodales, to accumulate the scarce resourcesthat remain. To overcome this problem a maguswould have to develop a new Hermetic lifestyle, or anew way of accessing vis. Examples of solutionstoward which magi are already working include: theOrder embracing Pious Magushood; the Popedeclaring that Hermetic magic is not evil and retem-pering the Dominion; mass migration to uninhabitedlands; flight into Arcadia or the Magic Realm; devel-opment of spells which work well in the Dominionand colonisation of the Undersea or Upper Airs. Toresolve this dilemma requires first the formulating ofa solution and then convincing all other Hermeticmagi to adopt it.

Cestus Numina

Certain Hermetic magi believe the fae will even-tually be so disturbed by the predations of their

sodales as to strike back against the Order. Charac-ters can overcome this threat in two ways. The first isto so thoroughly understand the fae that theybecome slaves to Hermetic power, much as the ele-ments are. The second is to successfully promulgatea new Hermetic culture that irritates the faeries less.A third option is to ally with the faeries and turnrenegade.

The Return of the Druids

It can be safely assumed that were the followersof Diedne to return in belligerent frame of mind,they would strike without warning, and with over-whelming force. Presumably they’d disguise themotive for, and method of, their attack. This wouldgive them the initiative in their Crusade against theother Houses, until someone developed an under-standing of them.

A subtler context problem lurks within theDiedne threat. Most of those concerned about theirreturn believe that the Order, once it had recoveredfrom the first wave of assaults, would overcome theDeidne using the same methods employed during theSchism War. This is an incorrect and dangerousassumption. The Mercurial wizards who formed thecore of the Flambeau forces were destroyed in thefinal major battle (see The Tempest for details) and

Cumulative representation

Remember, when running a Grand Tribunal, thatit is a representative body whose members are select-ed by lesser Tribunals or House tradition. Thismeans that each delegate is usually of one of fourtypes: consensus, charismatic, representative, primus.

Consensus candidates are the terrain aroundwhich other magi fight political skirmishes. Since thedecisions of tribunals enter the Peripheral Code,consensus delegates sometimes have little manoeu-vring room. The other candidates know what reso-lutions were passed in the lesser Tribunal that sentthose candidates. They know what issue the consen-sus candidate will place before the Tribunal, andwhat arguments they will use to re-enforce theirposition. Consensus candidates are unable to sur-prise their political foes, and may not be able to tradevotes for support, preventing them attracting allies.

Charismatic candidates are selected because theyhave the ability to persuade others. Although themotion they are to put before the Grand Tribunalhas usually been dictated by their own Tribunal, theyhave usually played a role in the drafting process, andin the preparation of the evidence which support it.The most skilled charismatic candidates have thetrust of their constituents, who often give them suf-ficient discretion that they can trade their vote onissues their Tribunal considers unimportant forbacking on the Tribunal’s proposals. Some charis-matics are visionaries, and add a degree of unpre-dictability to tribunal proceedings, since even if theirvotes are tied by the Peripheral Code, they usually

have the right to speak on issues, and swing themood of the meeting.

Representatives arrive from Tribunals that aredominated by a single political force, and they repre-sent that force on all issues. If this is a single cove-nant, like Doissetep in the Provençal tribunal, therepresentation of that covenant overshadows thewellbeing of the lesser Tribunal, in the representa-tive’s mind. If the force is larger than a covenant,these magi form the core bloc of votes within aprimitive political party. The most obvious examplesare the representatives from Normandy and Transyl-vania, who almost always support the Primi ofTytalus or Tremere. Such candidates need notdeclare their motion in advance, which makes themsurprising, but they can usually be dealt with as agroup, which makes them valuable allies.

Sometimes demagogues arise by chance, favour-ing an idea that is held by all-powerful parties in alesser Tribunal. For example, a population controlmovement might form about the representativesfrom Novgorod and the Alps, simply because bothTribunals are solidly in favour of population control.

Primi are similar to representatives in that theydon’t need to show their hand before the Grand Tri-bunal convenes. Primi generally speak on behalf of,at minimum, a loose coalition of magi of similarview. The motions put by the Primi are requestedand discussed last, which allows them to wait and seeif someone else brings up one of the matters they’dlike to discuss. Few Primi are answerable to anyonefor the motion they put, and if they decide not tochange their mind, or modify their initial proposal,they are not in breach of the Peripheral Code.

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their descendants may not be capable of performingthe conflagration rituals that were essential for victo-ry. Also, were the Druids to return, it would demon-strate that the methods used during the Schism Wardid not effectively exterminate the foe and at bestcould purchase a second, similarly limited, victory.

A New Bonisagus

The Hibernian covenant of Cirricus Ruber claimsto use a new Theory of Magic, startlingly superior tothat of Bonisagus, which they refuse to release, fear-ing another Schism. This highlights the duality in thenature of the House of Bonisagus. While continuingto defend the genius of the Founder, many of themare doing their best to sabotage the Hermetic para-digm from inside, trusting that someone else, the Tri-anomans for example, will ensure that the transitionbetween phases is smooth.

When a magical breakthrough is made, complexpolitical forces crystallise about the researcher. In theshort term, those with the breakthrough prosper bestif they do not share it, provided none know theyhave it, developing skills superior to their sodales.They prosper least well if they do not share thebreakthrough but others know they have it, since thisarouses both fear and envy in their sodales, each ofwhich waters the ever-present seed of Hermetic vio-lence. House Bonisagus charts the middle course,strengthening themselves then their sodales, and thenworking to maintain the status quo.

That knowledge is released to everyone doesn’tmean that it has no effect on the political balance

within the Order. If, to use the example given in theWizard’s Grimoire, a magus discovers how to halvethe cost of studying from vis, the economy of theOrder shifts in response. Tensions in Rome and Nor-mandy would recede. Fewer people suggest theimminent need to flee the Dominion. The violenthouses have more vis to waste on certamen andextending spell ranges, while the Verditius can createitems more cheaply. Other breakthroughs are of lit-tle interest to many Houses, but strongly favour one.

To use another example from the WGRE, con-sider the political effects of the discovery of amethod for creating elemental fire, lowering all CreoIgnem spell levels by 5. This would strongly favourthe Flambeau, since enhancing spells with vis wouldbe cheaper; favour the Verditius, since they couldsqueeze more effects into each item; but have no realeffect on most other magi. The Merinitans wouldconsider the development negative, even if they wereprovided with the new magic theory.

To overcome this context problem, charactersneed to determine the effects the research will haveon Hermetic culture, decide on a new balance ofpower within the Order, and smooth the transition tothat neoteric state. For militarily applicable discover-ies, the characters have to ensure that those withaccess to the materials don’t purge the Order of theirfoes, using legal, but now disequilibrate, WizardWars.

(To be continued in the next issue.)

Covenants as

Charactersby Erik Dahl

The covenant in Ars Magica can be seenas more than a setting, since it is thecommon link to all characters in a saga.Indeed, it might be seen as a character in

and of itself: a collection of stats and traits that helpsto define all those who live within it, played as awhole by the entire troupe, much like a grog thatalways interacts with the characters.

It seems most appropriate to me that as a cove-nant has elements of character about it, it should bedesigned in a way that more closely resembles a char-acter. Perhaps the rules for designing a covenantcould be more similar to the rules for designing acharacter, and perhaps there is no need to complicatethe process by introducing different kinds of pointsand traits.

Since the first read, the canonical rules for design-ing covenants have felt extremely complicated to me,and yet still oddly lacking in detail. Thus, I havedesigned new rules for designing and running cove-nants. They attempt to simplify the existing rules, butalso to develop them more deeply, to allow for rich-

er descriptions and a greater feel for the mythic qual-ities of a covenant.

I have condensed the eight Characteristics andtheir respective traits into values that represent moregeneral aspects of the covenant, in the spirit of char-acters’ Characteristics. I have also designed a methodby which a covenant can grow and change over timewithout modifying these standards, using Virtues andFlaws and a flexible scale for measuring the Seasonalmodel.

I would like to thank Bjarke Roth for his helpwith this article. Besides the improvements he madeto the whole of the text with his insightful commentsand testing, he has spent a lot of time with the libraryrules and was able to provide incredibly detailed data,as well as excellent suggestions on how to simplify it.I hope that he continues to share his thoughts andideas in the future.

Covenant CharacteristicsCovenants, as I have outlined them, still have

eight Characteristics, much in the same way thatcharacters do. They can be broken into four groupsof two, with both attributes in a pair generally relat-ed to each other. These are Access/Relations,Extent/Defenses, Income/Inhabitants, and Library/Magic. The values you initially assign to these canrange from -3 to +3, with 0 being the average.

These values are the backbone of your covenant.Typically, they do not change over time, for they rep-resent what makes your covenant unique. In unusualsituations, such as when a covenant passes from oneseason into another, the covenant may effectivelybecome a new character, building a different settingupon an older one. In such cases these Characteris-tics may be altered, but for most covenants the basicCharacteristics will remain the same from its found-ing until its destruction.

If you anticipate a covenant changing greatly dur-ing a season, you may want to rate it with the expect-ed characteristics rather than the actual characteris-tics, and make up the difference with temporaryVirtues and Flaws, as explained later. For example, aspring covenant may have no library or structures atall to start with, but as it will soon acquire them, youshould project these scores when designing it.

Keep in mind that these Characteristics representthe general environment of the covenant, and whilethe specifics may change and grow or fade, theydescribe a foundation upon which the covenant isbuilt. When designing a covenant, you can assignthese values as you would a character, either byrolling dice and giving them a random score, or bystarting with seven points and assigning them in apyramid fashion to each of the different sets of val-ues.

The specifics of what each covenant Characteris-tic represents are described below. If you are familiarwith the covenant rules in Ars Magica Fourth Edi-

tion, these may seem very similar, but they are notsimply the traits of each Characteristic summarizedinto one category. You may want to read them care-fully to determine how they vary from the previouscovenant rules.

Access

This rates the location of the covenant, address-ing the difficulty it will have in obtaining supplies,and how far removed it is from the rest of the world.A covenant with high Access will have necessaryresources readily available, and a fairly high profile. Acovenant with low Access will be more difficult toreach, and thus will receive less timely informationand have difficulty obtaining important materials.

The value of the Characteristic determines thefrequency of visitors to the site, according to the fol-lowing chart, and also determines the distance thecovenant’s inhabitants must travel in order to obtainthe covenant’s supplies. These are described as inex-pensive, standard and expensive. Inexpensive goodsinclude such necessities as water and firewood. Stan-dard goods are usually found in a village or hamlet,and require simple labor to manufacture: food, cloth-ing, beer, etc. Expensive goods, such as lab equip-ment, usually require more substantial work and aretypically found in larger cities.

Relations

Relations addresses the opinion that the cove-nant’s neighbors have of it and its members. Poor

Relations indicates that the covenant is not well-liked;perhaps it even has enemies who seek to undermineits success. Good Relations means that the covenantenjoys a good reputation or has many surroundingfriends and allies who will come to your aid whenneeded.

Much like Presence can affect a character’s socialinteractions with others, Relations modifies how vis-itors and outsiders treat the members of the cove-nant. When making social rolls associated with thecovenant, such as when negotiating on its behalf ordealing with locals, you may add this characteristic.This value might also be applied to rolls that deter-mine the quality of information about current eventsthat is available to your covenant as a whole, basedon the willingness of others to pass on news to you.

Extent

An average covenant has enough space for magiand their custos to live and study comfortably. It usu-ally can accommodate at least one impressive struc-ture, like a library or a council chamber. Covenantswith large Extent can accommodate many moreinhabitants, while a covenant lacking in Extent willhave much less space, due to physical boundaries orconsiderations like the weather and natural featuresof the land.

Generally speaking, each point of Extent corre-sponds to space for an impressive structure, twolaboratories or specialist’s shops, individual living

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+5 immediate access to all goods, visitors twice a day

+4 immediate access to inexpensive and standardgoods, expensive goods within half a day, visitorsevery day

+3 immediate access to inexpensive goods, standardand expensive goods within half a day, visitorsevery two days

+2 immediate access to inexpensive goods, standardgoods within half a day, expensive goods withinone day, visitors every few days

+1 immediate access to inexpensive goods, standardand expensive goods within one day, visitorsevery week

+0 immediate access to inexpensive goods, standardgoods within one day, expensive goods withintwo days, visitors every two weeks

-1 immediate access to inexpensive goods, standardgoods within one day, expensive goods withinseveral days, visitors every month

-2 immediate access to inexpensive goods, standardgoods within two days, expensive goods withinseveral days, visitors every two months

-3 immediate access to inexpensive goods, standardgoods within two days, expensive goods within aweek, visitors every season

-4 half a day to inexpensive goods, standard goodswithin several days, expensive goods within aweek, visitors twice a year

-5 half a day to inexpensive goods, standard goodswithin several days, expensive goods within twoweeks, visitors every year

quarters for up to ten people, or a common area forup to 25 grogs. The average covenant has 15 of thesepoints to spend, which are added and subtracted in apyramid fashion. Thus, a covenant with -3 Extentwould have only 9 points of space as a baseline.

This characteristic applies more to space in usethan actual structures or available space. A covenantwith a network of unexplored caves would not needto buy additional points of space for the potentialroom, unless it expanded into them beyond its usualliving area.

Defenses

Because of the threats that assail a typical cove-nant, Defenses is a gauge of how defensible the loca-tion and buildings are. A covenant with poor Defens-es will have dangerous weaknesses that can beexploited by an enemy, such as crumbling walls orsecret means of approach. Good Defenses indicatesheavy brush, steep slopes, strong walls or elaboratestructures that could help to hold off attackers.

The value of this Characteristic is added or sub-tracted to all rolls associated with defending or pro-tecting the covenant from physical attack, such asidentifying a threat or withstanding an assault. Inaddition, each pyramid point indicates a structural ornatural defense that may be exploited by either theattackers or defenders.

Income

A covenant’s income is the source of its comfort.A covenant with high Income has many renewableresources, be they vis or silver or raw materials.Wealthy covenants often keep a store of items andweaponry with which new members can be outfitted,or stores of silver to be used to purchase such thingswhen they become necessary. Impoverished cove-nants must go into debt to survive.

The average covenant earns just enough to sup-port its inhabitants and maintain its buildings. Sub-tract Extent from Income; any remainder is a yearlysurplus if positive, debt or disrepair if negative. Eachpyramid point of the total is roughly equal to 5pawns of vis, 50 pounds of silver, or a store of rawmaterials or equipment worth about 100 pounds ofsilver. Thus, a covenant with +0 Extent and +3Income might harvest up to 30 pawns of vis everyyear, while the same with -2 Income would come upshort 150 pounds of silver a year – if this was notpaid, the covenant would probably lose people, spaceor other valuables.

Most covenants will not have a negative Income,because they will not last long without it. However, acovenant with strong patrons or a large store of sil-ver can probably last a long time, until such time asits inhabitants find something on which they can live.

Inhabitants

A happy covenant will attract and retain manymagi and covenfolk, while an unhappy covenant willbe unable to get more than a few, and will have diffi-culty keeping them active. This value represents thegeneral living conditions and the number of inhabi-

tants that the covenant can comfortably support. Apositive Inhabitants score means that the covenantengenders loyalty and goodwill among its members.A covenant with negative Inhabitants will have fewmembers, and difficulty retaining the people itrecruits.

The value of this Characteristic is added tomorale and loyalty rolls. If the total number of peo-ple living at the covenant is greater or less than thespace available for them in Extent, the difference isalso applied to Inhabitants, representing people withextra room or without the space to live comfortably.If Inhabitants is positive, the covenant can effective-ly support more Inhabitants than it has space for, andis generally a pleasant community to live in.

Having a lot of Inhabitants, or not having verymany, is not necessarily a good or bad thing for thecovenant. A covenant can always find more people,depending on its Access to them and its Relationswith them. Whether or not they can get along withothers is what determines their value within the cove-nant. Thus, this Characteristic describes the loyaltyand goodwill among the people at the covenant,rather than being a hard measure of the number ofpeople living there.

Library

Often more than stores of food and materials orcollections of vis and silver, magi place great value intheir books. Even a pitiful covenant with a horribleLibrary will probably have one or two lab texts, aspell grimoire with Aegis of the Hearth, and a few sum-mae from which the magi may study. A great Librarywill consist of hundreds of books on diverse sub-jects.

As books are considered exceptionally valuablecommodities to magi, they receive their own catego-ry and are not considered part of Income, above.However, in order for a covenant to improve itsLibrary, it must either acquire new books or invest inthe materials necessary to write its own, and thusmust have either good Access or surplus Income.

As currently written, I have found the rules fordesigning a covenant’s library incredibly time-con-suming. Rather than assigning a number of spell lev-els and developing specific books, I suggest a moregeneral approach.

Using the following scale, every library is assigneda Level, Quality, and Depth. The Level determinesthe maximum target level of any given book in thelibrary, and the Quality represents the book’s Quality.Depth is used to determine if a given topic would berepresented, or if an unusual kind of book would beavailable.

These numbers can be adjusted based on thestrengths and weaknesses of the covenant. You cantreat any given subject as one place higher on thescale, but you must balance it with at least one sub-ject that is one place lower. For example, a -2 Librarymight have a very good Aquam section, and thuswould have a book rated Level 7 Quality 9, but its

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Ignem books would suffer, being only Level 4 Qual-ity 8.

Level Quality Depth of library

-5 1 6 Essential-4 3 7 Essential-3 4 8 Basic-2 6 8 Basic-1 7 9 Common+0 9 9 Common+1 10 9 Common+2 12 10 Uncommon+3 13 10 Uncommon+4 15 11 Rare+5 16 12 Rare

Other Books

It is easiest to assume that a covenant has onlysummae. However, if you would like to be able tostudy from other kinds of books, you can use Depthto determine if those kind of books would be avail-able. Low-level libri quaestionum might be found ina Basic library, and higher levels in a Common orUncommon library. Commentaries or tractatii mightbe part of an Uncommon library, and authoritiesmight be found in Rare libraries.

The numbers for Level and Quality must be mod-ified a little for other types of books. For libri quaes-tionum, the maximum target is half the Level ofsummae, and you should add 3 to the Quality. Forcommentaries, double the summae Level and sub-tract 3 from the Quality. Tractatii have Quality equalto the magnitude of the spell.

Spells

When a character wishes to learn a spell, youmust determine whether or not the spell could befound in the library. Generally, the covenant’s Depthindicates if the spell would be available. It is up to thestoryguide to rate a given spell according to its rarity,but generally speaking, low level spells are morecommon, Ritual spells are rarer, and spells in booksother than the main rulebook are rarer still. Any spe-cialties or weaknesses of the library should also beapplied to the spells – the sample library above wouldbe less likely to have Ignem spells, but more likely tohave Aquam.

Knowledges

You can also study Knowledges in the library.Knowledges must be assigned a rarity, just like spells,to determine whether there is a book available inyour library. For summae, the Level should be divid-ed by 3, or by 2 if it concerns Magic Theory.

Note that additional books and spells may still beadded to the library later. These additional worksshould be considered separately, though, rather thanby attempting to adjust the characteristic. This sys-tem is only intended to reduce the difficulty in creat-ing a starting library.

Magic

Also of primary importance to magi is a covenantwith a high Magical component. This is one of thegreatest indicators of the quality of their labs, for it

determines the strength of their Magical aura, andoften colors the general nature of the covenant. Acovenant with negative Magic will have little or noaura, poor labs, or perhaps supernatural phenomena,any of which could severely curtail its magical activ-ities.

The average covenant has a Magical aura of 3.The value of this Characteristic is added or subtract-ed from it, so that a covenant with Magic -3 will haveno aura at all. Since most lab activities require anaura, the magi in a covenant without an aura will haveto travel at least an hour to find one whenever theywish to conduct their studies. If this Characteristic isreduced below -3, it becomes a Dominion aura.

There are Flaws, below, that describe other kindsof auras. If you would like the covenant to haveaccess to a Magic aura, but be located within anoth-er aura, take the characteristic that describes the lev-el of the magical aura to which you have access.

Covenant aura Other aura

-5 Dominion 2 Magic 1-4 Dominion 1 Magic 2-3 no aura Magic 3-2 Magic 1-1 Magic 2+0 Magic 3+1 Magic 4+2 Magic 5+3 Magic 6+4 Magic 7+5 Magic 8

Covenant Virtues and FlawsCharacteristics can be used to give a general feel

for the flavor of a covenant. Especially whendescribing a distant covenant or a place the charac-ters are visiting, only general indicators are necessaryto understand how it compares. In more detailed sit-uations, however, Covenant Virtues and Flaws canprovide atmosphere and allow for unique settingsthat break the mold, so to speak. Like a character’sVirtues and Flaws, these traits provide depth to thecovenant, and balance themselves out to create awell-rounded setting.

Over time, a covenant will improve or decay,gaining or losing different advantages and disadvan-tages. Covenant Virtues and Flaws can be used torepresent this cycle. While the ideal covenant wouldhave a balanced number of each, through play thesetotals may change significantly, resulting in a cove-nant with few (if any) Flaws, or even one with noVirtues to speak of.

Covenant Virtues and Flaws may be gained andlost using a method similar to the way characters gainand lose Virtues and Flaws. Many troupes allow sig-nificant story events to achieve this end, or use ritu-als and ordeals similar to those described in The

Mysteries.As covenants follow a seasonal metaphor, begin-

ning in Spring and growing through Summer intoAutumn and finally dying in Winter, the following

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table of guidelines is given as a suggestion for theratio of a starting covenant’s Virtues and Flaws, tobetter represent the differences between the variousstages of its development. For example, a Summercovenant might begin with as many as 10 Virtues and10 Flaws, but a Spring covenant might have only 5Virtues balancing 10 Flaws.

Season Maximum Ratio

Spring +10/-20 1:2Summer +10/-10 1:1Autumn +20/-10 2:1Winter +20/-30 2:3Using this chart, it is easy to determine at a glance

a given covenant’s Season, since the ratio of itsVirtues to its Flaws will give some idea of its relativestrength. A covenant with two points of Virtues andfive points of Flaws is probably late spring, while onewith 30 points of Virtues and seven points of Flawsmight be described as early autumn.

Here are a number of ideas for Covenant Virtuesand Flaws that you might use to uniquely describeyour covenant, but you are also encouraged to inventyour own. Generally speaking, the value of a Virtueor Flaw is equal to a number of pyramid points,which can then be applied to the value of one of theCharacteristics, or compared to other Virtues todetermine how much it would help a given characterliving in the covenant. For example, a holy relicbelonging to the covenant would probably be a +3Virtue, since its value is similar to the characterVirtue of the same name. If the relic generated ayearly income, due to pilgrimages and the like, thateffect might also be described with an Increased(Income) Virtue.

Many Virtues and Flaws may be taken multipletimes, and I advocate “stacking” these rather thanadding up them as separate values. For example, acovenant with 75 pawns of vis in storage could takethree separate +1 Virtues to represent this, each indi-cating 25 pawns. Instead, I suggest you consider eachduplicate Virtue as a number of pyramid points in astack, and use the total to determine the final cost ofthe Virtue. In this case, three +1 Virtues would equalone +2 Virtue. This may also be appropriate forVirtues or Flaws that are not identical, but are simi-lar enough to warrant stacking.

Variable Virtues

Allies: The covenant has an ally or several allies,outside entities that actively support it and worktowards its success. They might do so because theylike the covenant, because the covenant pays them,or for even more sinister reasons. The cost of thisVirtue is determined by the ally’s relative strengthand the amount of time it devotes to your aid. Afriendly villager who passes on information once ayear might be worth +1, while a secret society of eld-er magi devoted to the covenant’s success might be+10.

Cyclic Aura (positive): Your covenant’s aura isattuned to some cycle of nature and is thereforestronger at certain times. When those conditions are

met, a number of points equal to the cost of thisVirtue are added to your magical aura. When dealingwith lab work, unless the cycle is greater than sea-sonal, the average of the normal and increased valueis used, to represent the varying aura as a whole dur-ing the time that magic is being applied. For example,only the average between night and day cycles isapplied to a season of lab work, even if the charac-ter works only at night (the changes during the dayaffect his experiments, distillation, etc.).

Increased (Characteristic): Because of yourefforts or beneficial circumstances, one of your co-venant’s Characteristics has been temporarilyincreased. Break the cost of this Virtue into pyramidpoints and add those to the points that make up theCharacteristic; for example a +3 Increased (Extent)Virtue would effectively raise a -2 Extent to a +2.

Magic Item: The covenant owns one or moremagical artifacts, rated with a pyramid point for each50 levels of spell effects invested in them. Thus, acovenant with up to 150 levels of spells would bea +2 Virtue, and one with up to 500 levels wouldbe +4. These items may be portable, to be used byanyone in the covenant. If they are built into thecovenant, so that they can only be used on the prem-ises, halve the number of spell levels they require.

Varying Aura (positive): Your covenant’s auravaries in strength, radiating out from a central featureof the covenant. In a specific area, the size of a pointof Extent, the aura is increased by the cost of thisVirtue, though it can be stacked multiple times tocover a greater amount of space.

+1 Virtues

Accessible Covenant: The covenant has tem-porarily gained greater access to its trade supplies,perhaps because of a road or bridge or some otherimprovement. Treat the covenant’s Access as if itwere one value higher for the purposes of travel timeand finding the distance to materials.

Contested Vis Source: The covenant has accessto a source of 10 pawns of vis each year, but it iscontested in some way. To collect the vis, they needto win it in a competition, such as by outwitting afaerie or besting the representative of a rival cove-nant in certámen.

Efficient Buildings: Due to Hermetic rituals orphysical improvements, the covenant’s labs or otherwork spaces are better than average. Three of thecovenant’s rooms gain a bonus of +1 to all magicalor craft work done within, or one room gains a +2bonus.

Good Supplies: The covenant has better accessto supplies of a particular type, such as armaments,food, people or exotica. Treat the covenant’s Accessas one greater when buying supplies of that type.

Quality Library: Special attention and care hasbeen paid to the books in the library, many of whichhave been glossed or given physical improvementsover the years. Add 1 to all book Qualities.

Secluded: The covenant is more difficult to findthan its location would suggest, and thus has fewer

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visitors than it would otherwise receive. Treat it as ifits Access were one value lower for the purposes ofdetermining the frequency of visitors.

Stored Materials: The covenant has accumulat-ed a large store of mundane equipment, supplies orother raw materials, worth about 500 pounds of sil-ver. This can include any kind of mundane resourceto which the covenant typically has access.

Stored Vis: The covenant has a store of surplusvis, up to 25 pawns’ worth. It may have been savedup from the covenant’s supply, given to the covenantas a gift, or perhaps collected as part of a previousadventure.

Watchful Covenant: The covenant is less likelyto be taken by surprise because of good intelligence.Assume that the covenant can protect one of itsstructural or natural weaknesses during a conflictbecause of advance warning, and treat the covenant’sDefenses characteristic as one greater when makingrolls associated with the watch.

+2 Virtues

Good Reputation: Because of the circumstancesof your covenant’s founding, other magi admire andenvy its inhabitants even if they haven’t done any-thing to earn this respect. All magi who join yourcovenant gain a positive Reputation at level 3 amongthe Order.

Great (Characteristic): This Virtue raises one ofthe covenant’s Characteristics from +3 to +4. Thisadds four pyramid points if the characteristic ismeasured in this way.

Quality Buildings: The covenant’s buildings aremade of exceptionally good craftwork, with aninventive or simply aesthetically pleasing design.Treat the covenant as if its Extent were one higherfor the purposes of determining the morale of itsInhabitants, and as one lower when determining sur-plus Income.

Specialized Library: The covenant has animpressive collection of books in a particular field,such as a particular Art or a type of Knowledge.Treat the Library characteristic as one greater whenstudying that topic.

Trained Animals: Several of the covenant’s ani-mals are very cunning (but still mundane), and havebeen taught to follow simple commands. These ani-mals are very valuable, and probably will be mournedas fellow covenfolk should they die or becomeinjured.

+3 Virtues

Guardian Spirit: The covenant is watched overby a benevolent presence, angelic, ghostly or in someother way supernatural. This spirit serves the betterinterests of the covenant, and may teach, guide orwarn its inhabitants when they need its aid. While ithas otherworldly powers, it can only manifest undercertain circumstances, or perhaps can only be seen bysome of the covenant’s members. The more power-ful it is, the less often it can help.

Land Charter: The covenant has worldly controlof the land upon which it is built, and while it mayowe fealty and service, it is effectively self-governingon a day-to-day basis.

Magical Regio: The covenant resides on a levelof a regio, determined by its aura. There may behigher or lower levels, but they are not generallyaccessible to the inhabitants or regular visitors, whopresumably know a ritual to enter and leave the regiowithout becoming lost. This Virtue pairs well withSecluded +1.

+4 Virtues

Incredible (Characteristic): This Virtue raisesone of the covenant’s Characteristics from +3 to +5.This adds nine pyramid points to Characteristics thatare measured in this way.

Magical Resources: Many of the covenant’splants, animals or children are magically enhanced, sothat they have unusual powers or make excellentapprentices, familiars or enchanted items. Producefrom the covenant often has the Gift, or are plantsand animals of Virtue, perhaps with strange andmagical effects.

+5 Virtues

Mythic (Characteristic): This Virtue raises oneof the covenant’s Characteristics from +3 to +5.This adds nine pyramid points to Characteristics thatare measured in that way. In addition, once per year,the covenant may enable an incredible feat associat-ed with the Characteristic. For example, a Mythic(Income) might bring in a bumper harvest, adding sixmore points’ worth of materials, while a covenantwith Mythic (Inhabitants) might gain three extrapoints of training experience each year.

Variable Flaws

Cursed Item: The covenant owns magical arti-facts with baneful effects, rated with a pyramid pointfor each 25 levels of spell effects invested in thedevice. Thus, an item with up to 75 levels of spellswould be a -2 Flaw, and one with up to 250 levelswould be -4. This may be combined with the corre-sponding positive Virtue, or it may apply to itemsthat are built into the covenant, but it should not betoo easy to get rid of it or avoid its effects.

Cyclic Aura (negative): Your covenant’s aura isattuned to some cycle of nature and is thereforeweaker at certain times. When the conditions aremet, a number of points equal to the cost of thisFlaw are subtracted from your Magical aura. Whendealing with lab work, unless the cycle is greater thanseasonal, the average of the normal and decreasedvalues is used, to represent the varying aura as awhole during the time that magic is being applied.

Decreased (Characteristic): Because of neglector unfortunate circumstances, one of your cove-nant’s Characteristics has been temporarilydecreased. Break the cost of this Virtue into pyramidpoints and subtract those from the points that makeup the Characteristic; thus a -3 Decreased (Relations)

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Virtue would effectively lower a +3 Relations to a+0.

Enemies: The covenant has one or more ene-mies, outside entities or internal spies that worktoward the covenant’s harm. The cost of this Flaw isdetermined by the enemy’s relative strength and thetime it devotes to your ruin. A spy in a nearby citymight be -1, while a powerful demon consumed withthe desire to ruin the covenant might be -10.

Overlapping Aura: Your covenant’s aura over-laps with another aura that waxes and wanes, occa-sionally gaining dominance. The cost of this Flaw isdetermined based on the type of aura and the fre-quency of its increasing, as indicated below.

Circumstances

Common (-1): The aura gains dominance incommon circumstances, such as during the dayor when it is raining.

Uncommon (+0): The aura takes over in rela-tively uncommon circumstances, such as onparticular holidays or in response to a ritual.

Aura

Faerie (+0)

Dominion (-1)

Infernal (-2)

The difference between the covenant’s Aura andthe level of the overlapping aura is also added to thecost of this Flaw. For example, a covenant with Mag-ical aura 3 and an uncommon Faerie aura 4 wouldhave a -1 Flaw.

Varying Aura (negative): Your covenant’s aurais not as strong in outlying areas, as it radiates out-ward from a central point. This may be due to somekind of supernatural interference or unusual featuresof the aura. Whatever the case, your aura is one lesswithin the outer third of your covenant’s area, andthis Flaw may be taken multiple times to represent alarger amount of space or a greater variance. Notethat it is common for an overlapping aura fromanother Realm to “show through” in places wherethe magic aura is weaker.

-1 Flaws

Dark Secret: The covenant has a secret thatwould bring shame and perhaps revenge if it werediscovered. Others who are not associated with thecovenant may be aware of your secret, and its inhab-itants must often act to make sure that the full truthis not discovered, lest they suffer unpleasant conse-quences.

Debt: The covenant has taken out a loan, worthabout 500 pounds of silver. The covenant probablyhas about twenty years to pay it back, but if theydon’t, consequences may ensue. The covenant has noaccess to this money now, as it has already beenspent. If the loan includes interest, that amount isaccounted for in this total.

Favors: The covenant owes a favor to someone,and may be called upon to make good at any time.Ignoring this request might have serious conse-quences to the covenant.

Inaccessible: The covenant has temporarilybecome less accessible, perhaps because a road hasbecome unsafe or the closest village has been aban-doned. Treat the covenant’s Access as if it were onevalue lower for the purposes of travel time and dis-tance between trading centers.

Inefficient Buildings: The covenant’s labs orother work spaces are worse than average, making itdifficult to get things done. Three of the covenant’srooms suffer a -1 penalty on all magical or craft workdone within, or one room suffers a -2 penalty.

Neglected Library: Due to neglect, wear, oraccidents, most of the books in the covenant’s libraryhave been damaged somewhat over the years. Sub-tract 1 from all book Qualities.

Obligation (covenfolk): The covenant isrequired to perform services for someone at leastone season every year, such as clearing bandits froma trade route, guarding a wealthy house, or partici-pating in a tournament. Many different people thatlive at the covenant can do these services, since theyrequire few special skills or resources, but they mustbe done or the covenant may suffer consequences.

Oblivious Covenant: For some reason, perhapsbecause of cover or a lack of watch structures, thecovenant is less able to recognize approaching dan-ger. Treat the covenant’s Defenses characteristic asone less when making rolls for the watch, andassume that enemies have an additional weakness toexploit when moving against the covenant.

Poor Supplies: The covenant has decreasedaccess to a particular kind of supplies, such as food,armaments, people or clothing. When purchasingthat type of supplies, treat the covenant’s Access asone less.

Poor Seclusion: The covenant is very easy tostumble across, more than its Access would suggest,and thus has more visitors than it would otherwisereceive. Treat it as if its Access were one value high-er for the purposes of determining the frequency ofvisitors.

Understaffed: The covenant does not haveenough people to maintain its buildings or make fulluse of the location. Treat its Income as one lesswhen determining the covenant’s upkeep and repair.

Vis Debt: The covenant owes about 25 pawns ofvis to another party. This may be due to a loan, legaldirectives from the Order, or perhaps to replace oth-ers’ vis that the covenant has used or accidentallydamaged or lost.

-2 Flaws

Bad Reputation: Perhaps because of circum-stances associated with your covenant’s founding, orsimply its location, other magi accord you lessrespect than you deserve. The covenant’s membersgain a negative Reputation by association, at 3 amongthe Order.

Faerie Aura: Your covenant’s aura is not a magi-cal aura, but a faerie aura. For magi without FaerieMagic, this will only add half of its strength to mag-ical activities, and will give additional botch dice.

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Strange faerie visitors and occasional feelings of dis-orientation may trouble those who live in the cove-nant.

Haunted: Ghosts or other spirits that cannotusually be seen haunt the covenant. At certain times,these spirits can become visible or maliciously inter-fere with the covenant’s activities. Because of theirnegative influence, reduce the effective value of bothInhabitants and Relations by one.

Lacking Library: The library is completely lack-ing material on an important subject, such as one ofthe Hermetic Arts or Magic Theory. You cannotstudy this topic in the covenant’s books.

Low Morale: The covenant’s inhabitants aredepressed and fight amongst each other, creating avery negative environment. Treat the covenant as ifboth its Inhabitants and its Extent were one valuelower for the purposes of determining morale.

Poor (Characteristic): This Virtue lowers one ofthe covenant’s Characteristics from -3 to -4. Thissubtracts four pyramid points from the Characteris-tic if it is measured in this way.

Shoddy Buildings: The covenant’s buildings aremade of exceptionally poor craftwork, allowing inthe weather or unpleasant smells, or perhaps it hasbeen badly designed, making it dreadfully inconven-ient to live in. Treat the covenant as if its Inhabitantswere one value lower for the purposes of determin-ing morale, and as if its Extent were one greaterwhen determining the Income lost to repair.

Weak Library: Your library has less material in aparticular subject, and the material it does have is lessrobust. When studying books within this field, treatthe Library characteristic as if it were one less.

-3 Flaws

Discredited Covenant: The quaesitores suspector have proven that your covenant has participated interrible crimes in the past, and thus they regard itsmembers with a suspicious eye. You have a bad rep-utation of the appropriate type among quaesitores, atlevel 4, and have to watch your step or suffer imme-diate legal action.

Interfering Regio: The covenant is built in spaceoverlapping a regio associated with another Realm.The covenant’s magical aura is generally dominant,but occasionally its members may wander into theregio and become disoriented or trapped. Visitorsfrom the regio are much more frequent; treat thecovenant as if its Access were one higher whendescribing visitors from this regio.

Obligation (magi): The covenant is required toperform services for someone, generally one seasoneach year, and these services require one of the cove-nant’s magi. The covenant can determine whichmember must actually perform the task, but it mustbe performed or there will likely be consequences.Magi performing such services will not have time todo lab work during that season.

Outlaws: The covenant does not own the landon which it was built, and the rightful owner has noidea the covenant is there, but will likely disapprove

should your presence become known. Legally, youhave no right to live there without his permission,and so you must be careful to remain hidden or beprepared to move or fight if the need arises.

-4 Flaws

Dominion Aura: The covenant has a Dominionaura, rated one greater than its magical aura (i.e. acovenant with Magic +0 would have a Dominion 4aura). The strength of this aura can be increased bytaking a greater Flaw, with each additional level addedto the value of the aura, i.e. a -5 Dominion Aura Flawwould be two greater, or Dominion 5. Characterswishing to use their magical aura will need to travel atleast an hour to avoid the Dominion’s influence.

Feeble (Characteristic): This Virtue lowers oneof the covenant’s Characteristics from -3 to -5. Thisremoves nine pyramid points from Characteristicsthat are measured in that way.

-5 Flaws

Infernal Aura: The covenant has an infernalaura, rated one greater than its magical aura (i.e. acovenant with Magic +0 would have an Infernal 4aura). This can also be increased by taking a greaterFlaw, with each additional level added to the value ofthe aura: a -6 Infernal Aura Flaw would be twogreater than the covenant’s magic aura. Characterswishing to use the covenant’s magical aura must trav-el at least an hour to escape this evil influence.

Pathetic (Characteristic): This Virtue lowersone of the covenant’s Characteristics from -3 to -5.This removes nine pyramid points from the Charac-teristic if it is measured in this way. In addition, onceper year, the covenant may suffer some terrible mis-fortune associated with the Characteristic. For exam-ple, Pathetic (Extent) might cause a building to col-lapse, harming several covenfolk, while a covenantwith Pathetic (Access) might be unable to acquire anysupplies at all for one season.

Warping Aura: The covenant’s aura has a debili-tating effect on its inhabitants, causing unpleasantchanges over time. Every year, each inhabitant mustmake an additional aging roll, though if this is failedthe negative effects will merely be strange instead ofdangerous. Magi, however, must roll for temporaryTwilight.

A Sample Covenant: VoluntasVoluntas is described in Ars Magica Fourth Edi-

tion, and here is its write-up, revised so that its Char-acteristics and general description conform to theserules.

The covenant is described as slightly remote, witha poor reputation. It has some physical defenses anda little surplus income, and while it is lacking a magus,that situation is not negatively affecting the cove-nant’s morale. Its library is very good, perhaps thesource of envy and repute throughout the Tribunal,and it also has a very good Magical aura. The build-ings are good quality, and the labs have beenimproved. It has a small debt, and an extremely pow-erful enemy.

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Characteristics

Access: -2Relations: -2

The covenant’s location is kind of off the beatentrack, in a swampy moor. Visitors stumble across thecovenant every other month or so. It takes a littlelonger to get supplies, and what is generally on handis poor quality.

Its neighbors do not think highly of the cove-nant. The peasants think of it as a home to danger-ous wizards, and other magi view it as prone to com-mit to impossible causes. When interacting with oth-ers, these negative impressions precede them, penal-izing their social efforts.

Extent: +0Defenses: +2

The covenant is an average size, with enoughroom to house a typical number of magi and theirservants. Furthermore, its defenses are good,because its location is surrounded with soft groundthat is difficult to traverse, and it has two towers thatprovide some advance warning of approachingthreats.

Income: +1Inhabitants: +0

Voluntas has a small income of silver, and an ade-quate supply of vis. The magi work together and helpeach other out, but have no unusual solidarity.

Library: +3Magic: +2

The covenant has a very good library, probablythe source of some jealousy in Britain. It is likely thatthe magi can learn very quickly when studying fromit, and it certainly covers a complete range of topics.The covenant also has a very good Magical aura, at 5.It is likely that magical allies and enemies will bedrawn to Voluntas.

Virtues and Flaws

+2 Efficient BuildingsVoluntas has improved two of its labs, making

the work of its magi much more efficient. Three +1Virtues have been stacked to give a +3 bonus tothose rooms, making the final Virtue cost +2.

+2 Quality BuildingsMany of the buildings at Voluntas are of particu-

larly good quality.+2 Good (Library)

The covenant’s library is good enough to warrantbeing increased from +3 to +4.

+2 AlliesThe covenant has several sources of information,

including an abbot and a merchant. They do not goout of their way to help the covenant, but they dorespond to letters and convey important informationwhen time permits them.

-7 EnemiesThe covenant’s enemy, Blackthorn, is a powerful

Autumn covenant, and though it has very little timeto devote to Voluntas’ ruin, it does have spies there.Most of its negative influence will be political ratherthan aggressive.

-1 Debt

The covenant still owes about 500 pounds of sil-ver to a lender.

Voluntas is probably regarded as a Summer cove-nant, with 8 points of Virtues and 8 points of Flaws.Over time, the efforts of its members on the cove-nant’s behalf may overcome some of its Flaws, bydefeating or appeasing its enemy. Or, they mayimprove so much that Blackthorn is no longer such aliability. When that happens, it may come to be con-sidered an Autumn covenant.

Covenant Development

As your covenant grows and changes, like anycharacter it will begin to gather new Virtues andFlaws. As a storyguide, I try to balance new characterVirtues with corresponding Flaws, to keep the char-acter from becoming too powerful or one-dimen-sional, but over the course of a saga characters willeventually begin to gather more of one than the oth-er.

Using this system, I do the same for covenants.When a covenant’s efforts give them a new Virtue, Ioccasionally feel justified in sneaking in a new Flawduring the next session, usually after a major botch orbadly handled story decision. However, concentratedeffort and adventuring can overcome Flaws or allownew Virtues to be acquired.

Eventually, usually at the end of a saga, the cove-nant will undergo a drastic change and pass intoanother season. This is a good time to assign newFlaws or give new Virtues, or to perhaps reassess thecovenant’s Characteristics in light of its new status.

For story covenants, meaning those that do notbelong to the troupe, the number of Virtues andFlaws gives me a general idea of their power levels,and I can approximate their Characteristics fairlyquickly to get an idea of their distinguishing features.In most cases, though, non-player covenants getmost of their flavor from their setting rather thantheir stats, and I haven’t found the need to introducedetailed changes to them over time. If I need todescribe how a covenant has developed using thissystem, I can just pick a couple of Virtues or Flawsand mention that the covenant has acquired them.

Summary

In short, since my goal is mostly to make design-ing covenants easier and more rewarding, I hope thisarticle makes you think about how covenants canwork in your saga. These rules are admittedly not asdetailed as the original mechanics, and they do nothave the potential for as regulated simulation ofdevelopment as those were designed to allow. Theaccumulation of Virtues and Flaws, and the loss ofthem over time, may accomplish the same goal, so Ihope that you will give this system a run through andlet me (and the Ars Magica community) know howit works for you.

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Dear AbelardTranslator’s Note:

Dear Abelard is a column devoted to the writings

of an elderly follower of Bonisagus who believed

the best way to fulfill his duty to the Order was to

share all of his advice and research in the form of

written correspondence with a network of readers, carried by

Redcaps to magi throughout Mythic Europe. If, through the

course of your saga or studies, you discover a question that you

think could have at one time been answered by Abelard, please

forward it to the editor,

Hermes.Portal@wanadoo.fr or todearabelard@yahoo.comand we will attempt to find a record of his reply.

� � �

Dear Abelard,Since no one else seems willing to listen, I write

to you in hope that you can help me with my predica-ment.

Three years ago I passed my Gauntlet and wasdeclared a magus of House Ex Miscellanea. The Tri-bunal of Initiation was held at Occultus Lux inThebes. My pater, Geoffrey of House Ex Miscel-lanea, and I were passing through en route to theLevant, when we ran into a visiting quaesitor. Onething led to another, and having been en route tosomewhere with my pater most of my life, I wasmore than happy to accept the subsequent offer ofmembership at Occultus Lux. Although my duties asa junior member seem no less harsh than my dutiesas an apprentice, it at least makes me feel like beingpart of something larger.

The only other junior member at Occultus Lux isModicus of House Tremere. So we are quite busydoing everything that needs to be done by magi, butthat the senior members cannot be bothered to do.Since Modicus rarely make an effort unless it hasbeen spelled out as part of our duties, it is usually mewho ends up doing most everything around here.How they ever managed to run this place before Igot here is unclear, but I suppose that is just the waysuch things work. Until recently, I was quite contentwith my lot.

Then one day last year Modicus started to throwpebbles at me. I told him to stop, but he just mockedme, saying that there was no one around to stop him,and that no one would care about what I said anyway.I kept trying to talk my way out of a confrontation,but it was clear that Modicus would not back down.For the first time in my life I saw no other way thanto resort to certámen. So I challenged him with thecondition being that he should stop, and by traditionannounced my best technique. Seeing the smug grinon Modicus’s face, it was clear that this was exactlywhat he wanted me to do. He picked the form andthen gave his own condition, which was that shouldhe win, I would have to copy the spells he was sup-posed to copy that season. I tried to object to thisludicrous condition, but apparently I had to accept itor allow him to continue to throw pebbles at me.

Needless to say, I lost the certámen, as was to beexpected when one like me challenges a Tremere thathas had at least a decade or two more time to studythe Arts. However, I don’t see how else I could havereacted without saying that I also would submit towhatever else he might think of. It seems that onlythe strong can get justice with certámen, so it is quiteuseless to the likes of me.

Knowing that Modicus might try to pull a similarstunt again, I have tried to figure out what limitsthere are to the conditions given in the certámen. Ijust cannot believe that this is how it is supposed towork. I will not accept that. I did not become amagus just to become a mere servant. I have beenunable to find anything to suggest otherwise, though,and time is running out since Modicus is supposed tocopy spells again next season. Unless you can helpme, I will probably have to leave Occultus Lux toavoid Modicus.

Signed, Franz in Thebes

My Dear Franz,Your position is indeed difficult, and in hopes of

providing you context for this unpleasant situation,and also to educate others who read these letters,allow me to expound for a few moments upon theintricacies of certámen.

The tradition of certámen among the Order ofHermes is a worthy and noble one. It provides amethod for two wizards to settle disputes betweenthem, rather than by requiring the legal authority ofa quaesitor, covenant council, or Tribunal. This doesnot diminish the authority of these higher courts,and if two magi cannot come to terms on the condi-tions of their certámen, it seems to me that theymust seek the intervention of one of these greaterauthorities.

In all honesty, I have not been involved in manywizards’ duels myself, and I suspect that many of ourbrothers and sisters in the Order have similarly beenlucky enough to avoid personal involvement in thisaspect of Hermetic law. But after consultation withmy learned sodalis Moratamis of House Guernicus,I feel knowledgeable enough to be able to advise youand my many other readers on the complexities ofthis venerable arrangement.

Here is the complete text of the rules of certá-men, taken from the Peripheral Code:

“938th year of Aries (A.D. 799): Rules for Certá-men. Certámen is to be respected as a means of set-tling disputes decisively. In certámen, the challengermust first choose and state the technique to be used,and the defender must then choose the form. Anymagus refusing to engage in certámen or refusing toabide by the results thereof is betraying the spirit ofthe Code and is to be punished. Those who refuse toaccept certámen challenges, therefore, or refuse toabide by the decision of a certámen may suffer moreviolent coercion by the offended magus and shall bepunished by their tribunals. No magus who wins maychallenge the losing magus to certámen a secondtime over the same matter; the loser must abide by

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the decision or challenge again. Magi may use raw visto aid them even in ritual certámen.”

A later ruling reads:

“971st year of Aries (A.D. 832): Rules for Certá-men. No certámen shall force a magus to give up hisrights, nor force a magus to break the Code of Her-mes nor the Peripheral Code. The rights protectedfrom certámen include the rights of a praeco leadinga tribunal, the rights of a primus ruling a house, andthe rights of a quaesitor protecting the Order.”

A great deal of confusion about certámen stemsfrom conflicting information. The rules of certámenwere added to the Peripheral Code in A.A. 938, butsince then an error seems to have occurred in manycopies of the text. Some versions mistakenly read“No magus may challenge another magus to certá-men a second time unless the magus to be challengedhas challenged the first in the meantime.” This mis-take seems to occur most often in older copies of theCode. I cannot speculate as to how this accidentcame into being, but I can at least provide the correctpassage. According to the law, a magus may challengeanother as often as he wishes, so long as by doing sohe does not attempt to settle a matter that has alreadybeen decided in his favor.

Translator’s Note: Ars Magica Fourth Edition

and other older sources refer to the earlier rule concerning when

a certámen challenge may be issued. The text of the Peripher-

al Code was changed in Wizard’s Grimoire, Revised

Edition to the text cited by Abelard, above. Perhaps this

was to prevent the practice of goading another magus into

declaring certámen over some unimportant matter, thus mak-

ing one safe from further challenges from that magus. The

change also makes it possible for members of House Tremere

to challenge their elders for their sigils more than once in their

lifetimes, since they do not have to wait for that elder to chal-

lenge them in the meantime.

Also important to the concept of certámen is therequirement that magi will respect it as a means ofsettling disputes. As Moratamis says, “Certámen is amethod for settling disputes, not for starting dis-putes, and thus magi are prohibited from seeking outissues to settle through certámen. Those who do notabide by this law will surely be punished when theiractions come to light.” If you could have seen thefire in her eyes as she spoke this, you would surelyagree that this is so.

I have heard it said that the strictures about thechallenger declaring the technique and the defenderthe form are more tradition than law. Moratamisdoes concede that if the two magi agree to terms, theresult is binding regardless of who declared whichArts. If there is no consensus on this variation to theformula, however, she maintains that the standardprocedure must be followed, as the Code clearlystates what is proper. Other authorities may interpretthis passage more liberally, of course.

Furthermore, if the two participants cannot agreeto terms, as when one insists on conditions that theother finds unreasonable, or when there are differingperspectives on what exactly is being disputed, the

magi may have to seek a higher authority to settle thematter. A quaesitor might help by clearly outliningthe terms so that the magi may duel, or a covenantcouncil may decide the matter for its members if itscharter gives them that authority. However, duringthe intervening time, neither party should behave asif the challenge has not been issued; doing so isrefusing to respect the authority of the challenge.Certámen may stall on the terms, but if a magus con-tinues the activities that caused the dispute, he isclearly refusing to engage, and his opponent hasgrounds to seek harsher justice.

So, my dear Franz, I would suggest that you bringthe matter to the attention of House Guernicus.There are many in the Thebes Tribunal who read myletters, and one of them may seek you out inresponse to your plea. With their help, you may beable to demonstrate that Modicus is abusing theCode. His attempts to bully you into certámen on histerms should fail, now that you are more familiarwith the law. You may have to challenge him to certá-men again if he continues to harass you, but you donot have to agree to whatever terms he tries toinclude in the contest. Simply remain steadfast, anddeclare that he has no claim to your time, and thus itis not a fair challenge. If he argues, seek a quaesitoror one of the senior members of your covenant todecide, perhaps the one who assigned him the dutieshe is attempting to avoid.

One final note: I have heard it is acceptable tonominate a champion to represent you in certámen,though I have never seen this custom put into prac-tice. Our brothers and sisters of House Merceremust employ this method, as those who do not havethe Gift are still entitled to justice. A challengedmagus may nominate a second to fight in his stead,and this surrogate and the challenger decide theterms. If, my dear Franz, you fear that despite theintervention of others you will continue to beharassed by Modicus or other magi like him, youmight consider finding yourself an advocate, eithersomeone like Moratamis who would like to see a bul-ly learn his lesson, or perhaps a specialist with a moremercenary interest.

� � �

Dear Abelard,I am writing to you in anger at the answer you

gave to “Margaret in Provence” in your last letter.The poor woman was obviously smitten by a magus,and though you advised her that she had little hopeof a virtuous relationship with him, you encouragedher to show him signs of affection. Did it even occurto you that she may have been under a spell of hisdesign?

Many men throughout the Order cruelly takeadvantage of the women who serve them, especiallyyoung and intelligent women that otherwise threatentheir masculinity. This magus she “loves” cannotdominate the women with the Gift that he is forcedto regard as his equals, and so he preys upon thosemore susceptible to his wiles. By advising her to

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explore his intentions, you play her right into hishands.

This is precisely the reason why we do notencourage relations between magi and mundanes. Itis impossible for a wizard to treat someone withouthis power as his equal. We must care for the mun-danes and protect them, but we cannot ever acceptthem on a common ground. Margaret will find her-self used and discarded, with no regard for her posi-tion or experience, and this Mentem-man will soonfind himself another victim. And if his hold on herheart is very great, despite this callous treatment shemay never see him for what he really is!

It is irresponsible of you, Abelard, to overlookthis phenomenon. I insist that you correct the prob-lem by copying my letter to those who read yourwords, so that Margaret may see this and know toseek help from those magae who would be willingand able to aid her.

Signed, Gloriosa,follower of Jerbiton, the Rhine

My dear Gloriosa,Your point is well taken. I did not realize that the

poor woman could be in such danger. If that isindeed the case, I hope your cautions will ring true toher and that she will seek assistance wherever shemay find it.

But, you might read on for another reader’simpressions of the situation.

� � �

Dear Abelard,Thank you so much for your beautiful advice to

Margaret of Provence! When I met my wife manyyears ago, I also worried that the distance between us

would prove impossible to overcome. Yet I perse-vered and courted her love, and eventually asked herhand in marriage. Now we live together at our cove-nant, and I work my magic on both of us, so that wemay live beyond our years.

Our children are healthy, and we suspect that twoof them have signs of the Gift. It is because of mywife that these children are here, and thus our greatOrder is continued. My greatest wish is that I mayteach them the Hermetic Arts as both their fatherand their master. I can think of no greater joy thantaking one of my own children as my apprentice.

I wish Margaret and the young magus she lovesall the best, and I hope that they can find the happi-ness together that I have been so fortunate to dis-cover.

Signed, Souvenier of Bonisagus

in Normandy

My dear Souvenier,

Your account is quite heartening, and I congratu-late you on your contributions to the Order. Thankyou very much for your letter, and I hope to see youand your family at next Tribunal.

Until next issue, my dear readers,

abelard

“Dear Abelard” was written by Lanatus, follower of

Bonisagus, and his amica Moratamis, follower of Guernicus.

To receive his regular correspondence, or to ask for his advice,

please send your name, covenant and Tribunal to Dear

Abelard, Scriptoris Socii, Normandy. Your confidentiality

will be respected.

30

Hermetic Information

Storage and Flowby Timothy Ferguson

This article suggests ways in which Her-metic magi might access, store and tradeinformation. It uses modern informationtheory to suggest ways of developing

collections of materials other than books, much likemodern museums do, which can be used for study.This creates a new class of treasure, and makes manyof the oddities collected as trophies by Hermeticmagi useful, in the absence of books, as study mate-rials.

The second section of the article deals brieflywith document flow. Document flow involves thetrading of information — usually books — betweenlibraries and individuals. Since Church libraries ofthe time engaged in document flow arrangements,this article gives brief rules for similar Hermeticagreements.

Observation to Datum to Informa-

tion to Knowledge to WisdomHermetic libraries collect more than just books.

An event goes through several stages of interpreta-tion when scholars attempt to learn from it. Firstthey notice that the event exists. This becomes a dis-crete bit of information, called a datum, which theymake sense of by placing it in a context, which com-bines it with related data. Contextualised data iscalled information, and is what is stored in Hermeticbooks. Information that a reader absorbs, integratingit with what they already know, becomes knowledge,and it is at this point that it increases a character’sability or art scores. Knowledge that is incorporatedinto an ethical framework is called wisdom, and wis-dom, or its lack, is the province of the player.

What this means is that libraries can hold notonly books or other vessels of information, they canhold repositories of material from anywhere alongthe interpretative chain. Most, of course, preferbooks, because they are relatively cheap to produce,durable and transportable, but these are not the onlyoptions. Alternatives can be considered in threeclasses: data repositories — which store phenome-na; information repositories — which storedescriptions of phenomena; knowledge reposito-

ries — which store complex, interactive sets ofinformation.

Data Repositories: The Study of

Natural SignsA magus studying from a book, or under the tute-

lage of another magus, gains experience in an appro-priate Art. These techniques use human signs, writ-ten or spoken, to convey information. These are thesafest means of study, because the source fromwhich the student draws their information is ahuman being, who acts as a filter between dangerousphenomena and the student. There are, however,

methods of gaining information by direct observa-tion of natural phenomena. These yield less experi-ence than book learning, or are more hazardous thanstudying human signs, so are little used.

The magi of the Houses of Merinita and Bjor-naer continue to practice the observation of naturalsigns. Those wishing to study natural signs can devel-op the ability after studying a book on the techniquefor two seasons, or studying an extra season under amaster, purchased as a +1 virtue at character genera-tion. To study natural signs, a character must have theability to observe magical energy, through the use ofthe Sight, Intellego Vim spells, or magical items.They also need to find a natural sign of sufficient rar-ity and complexity to make study valuable. Naturalsigns come in two types: processes and objects

Processes

Processes are unfolding magical events, viewed tounderstand the interplay of forces which allows themto occur. Hermetic magi tend to avoid lengthy con-tact with powerful processes, since those exposed tothem risk Twilight, distortion and injury. Observingprocesses is of variable value, since they are depend-ent on unpredictable underlying factors. Players arealready familiar with “burning vis” a process that hasbeen domesticated by Hermetic magi.

A magical substance called lace is produced whenmagi burn vis in laboratories as a method of study.Its name is descriptive of its appearance: unfoldingpatterns of energy that swirl out of vis when treatedappropriately. All magi with a Magic Theory score of3 or more can make artificial lace, since that infor-mation has been dispersed across the Hermetic tra-dition. Lace also appears naturally, but is rarelyobserved. Outside the laboratory, each magus suffersa -5 penalty on his study total, and rolls (2 × pawnsof vis) botch dice if he loses control of the lace he isstudying. Multiple magi can study a single, wild lacesimultaneously, but if one botches, all botch. Sincelace, if discovered early, can be restabilised and har-vested as vis, even those who want to study usuallyprefer to tame it in their laboratories, Stabilising lace“cooks” some of the vis, however, into the solidform that the magical energy embodies, so tiny lacesare unharvestable.

A few magi prefer to observe lace. Persistentrumours indicate enormous patterns of lace some-times form in the highest level of certain magicalregiones, and those with, for example, CharmedLives or Destinies might want to study them, becausethese intricate laces are said to contain more energythan three pawns of vis. Places where laces unwindare sacred to the Houses that revere mundane wilder-ness, since they allow study in animal shape, or innatural surroundings. Seekers debate whether spiritstaught the earliest magi, or if magi discovered theirpowers by observing natural signs such as lace.

When a magus from a Roman house discovers alace-site, a covenant is often founded there. Anoption for a player-character spring covenant is thatit is a lace site, forcing the characters to choose, each

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season, whether they study the lace or harvest it forvis. Once the covenant becomes firmly established,and its library becomes properly rounded, theProcess is treated like just another vis source. Anexception is found in Scotland, which has manyknown or suspected sites of Natural Symbolism.Wandering magi, called ananoran, migrate betweensites, as their studies require.

Less dangerous natural processes also exist, andcan be observed in the same way, but they are lessinformative, and many are singular, rather than cycli-cal, events. The most valuable are portable, stable,non-terminating processes. These unique treasures,some of which offer flavours of guaranteed researchInsight, can act as the focus of a campaign arc, as amotivator (understand it before it fades away orexplodes), McGuffin (chase it!) or mystery (wheredid it come from, can we make more, and what canwe do with it?)

Experience from observed Processes is almostalways spent in Techniques. Storyguides may alsoallow Processes to be used to study Enigmatic Wis-dom.

Natural Objects

Hermetic magic is sufficiently advanced thatmost practitioners prefer to study from books or vis,but those in some of the oldest covenants studyobjects. This is because when several instructiveobjects are grouped together, into collections, thetarget and quality scores of the collection are higherthan those of any single element. Since collectionscan be disassembled, a novice can study individualcomponents. Most standing collections have a labo-ratory built within their displays, since its simpler tomove the magus using the collection to a specialisedlaboratory than to move the collection to the charac-ter’s sanctum.

An object used as a natural sign has Target andQuality ratings, and is similar to a liber quaestionum.The insight that can be gained by study of an objectdepends on the complexity of the object and theexperience of the student. The benefit is greatest ifthe student has previously worked with simplerobjects but not with more complicated ones. Amagus wanting to study the collection at its highestlevel requires exclusive use of all of the exhibits, butsince a younger magus can ignore confusing items,focusing on those suitable for his level of skill, hecan use portions of a collection, sharing it with oth-ers. Living creatures lose much of their usefulness asnatural signs if killed, and many inanimate objectsare of reduced value if removed from their naturalcontexts.

Natural objects can be used to study Affinities.Collections related to broad affinities are rare, andare usually held in older single-House covenants,which have the resources and desire to develop themover time. Minor collections related to specific, nar-row affinities are common, but these are often of lit-tle use to magi other than the collector and their lineof descendants.

Artefacts

Artefacts, objects made by humans to express anidea, aren’t truly natural signs, but form a middleQuality level between books and natural objects.Artefacts can be placed in collections, and a collec-tion can include a mixture of natural and artificialexhibits. Magical artefacts are an exceptional case,and can be used to develop Arcane Knowledge. Thefinest collection of this type is that in Verdi, whichcan be studied to develop Verditius Magic.

Information Repositories

Books

Print is the basic way that Hermetic magiciansstore information. Hermetic books tend to be writ-ten in Latin, although some are written in Greek.This demonstrates that Latin is not a sacred lan-guage, a necessary part of the process of magicallearning or spell casting. By way of comparison, con-sider Kabbalists, none of whom practice in Greek,because that’s simply not how their magic works.

Given that magic can be practised in languagesother than Latin, it can probably be written in thevulgar languages of the barbarian states that arosefrom the fragments of Rome’s empire in the West. Alimiting factor here is that description of magicalphenomena requires a jargon, a series of specialisedwords that make the transmission of complex ideas,between experts, possible. Mystical writing in theMiddle Ages created jargon by metaphor. For exam-ple, a chemical might be called the “Red Throne”.Another might be represented by the symbol for Sat-urn. Even if translated, these are gibberish to some-one without a Magic Theory score, because analogiesdo not translate across cultures.

Hermetic magi usually write in a font called Car-olingian miniscule, which was designed in the late 8thCentury by Alucin, a counsellor of Charlemagne.This was a cost-saving measure, as “tiny” writingused less vellum than the earlier style. Before Alcuinthe preferred font was majuscule, block capital let-ters. Since the Order was founded slightly before theintroduction of “tiny” writing, the works of theFounders, their associates, and most members of thefirst generation to follow them are in majuscule.Genuine books in majuscule are rare and prized;although forgeries that fool magical testing are diffi-cult to make, they are not uncommon. Some magicollect majuscule books.

The rules as written are for books in miniscule.Majuscule books are larger, heavier and more expen-sive to produce, although they are easier to read (+1to Physical Quality according to the rules given onpages 130-2 of The Wizard’s Grimoire: Revised Edition).

Letters

Epistles, letters, are produced in such volume,and are so highly valued, that a whole House is ded-icated to their safe delivery. Many letters are writtenon wax tablets, which are fragile, but can be reused.Their contents are transferred to vellum for archiv-ing, or for travel.

32

Knowledge repositories: ThinkersWhen a master teaches, he is acting as a knowl-

edge repository. Of his knowledge, he selects acoherent, contextualised strand of information, andoffers it to the student. The student then assimilatesit, creating a copy of the knowledge within him.They, in turn, become a knowledge repository, butthey are probably less good as a source for newduplicates due to two factors: some drift occurs inthe replication process, so that their knowledge maycontain errors, and they are probably less skilled asteachers, so they have a lesser ability to rapidly makeduplicates.

Although masters or colleagues are the usualtrainers for Hermetic magicians, covenants may haveaccess to other knowledge repositories. These areused as an adjunct to their libraries. Companions,ghosts, familiars, items that learn, and allies can all berecruited as teachers.

Wisdom repositoriesIn Ars Magica, wisdom is something that is disas-

sociated from the knowledge of the character. Play-ers, not the effects of ability scores, select wiseactions by characters. If a character was forced tothink about why he just performed a wise action,they would suggest either that they followed the dic-tum of a divine power, or that they were led by whatwe might term a dissociative personality element: theconscience, the juno, intuition.

In Mythic Europe, wisdom is represented byvirtues like Free Expression, Enigmatic Wisdom,True Faith, Intuitions, Common Sense and someKnacks. Most of these require openness to an out-side force. This is why they can’t be taught from mas-ter to student, because they require a level of pro-cessing beyond atavistic replication of knowledge.Most require some kind of inspiration, literally a“breathing in” of outside forces, which are not underhuman control. Libraries, therefore, cannot containwisdom repositories, but can contain provocativematerial, works designed to get the character in theright frame of mind for inspiration to strike.

Books on Enigmatic Wisdom don’t contain wis-dom, any more than bibles contain faith. What theycontain are riddles, images, lifestyle hints, pharma-ceutical prescriptions and other guides to that mentalstate in which inspiration, as represented by theanswer to the reader’s riddle, is most likely to occur.

This means that characters can’t study EnigmaticWisdom without riddles, trances, dancing, drinking,fasting, flagellation or whatever else it is that Cria-mon do. The Enigma, whose name means “mystery”or “puzzle”, cannot be taught like mathematics,because it isn’t a knowledge. The best a master cando is offer their student traditional provocations,hoping that they “get it”.

Document flow

The reason many of the largest Hermeticlibraries seem so comprehensive is that they are partof a distributed collection network. That means thatthe collection is not static; the librarians from sever-al large libraries co-operate to make their collectionsmore useful than they would otherwise be. Churchlibraries often make temporary, reciprocal loans ofbooks, in the wealthiest cases to allow copying, andagreements that promote document flow also existwithin the Order. A steady stream of high-qualitytractatus is vital to elder magi, allowing them to con-tinue to master their Arts without studying from vis.Librarians co-ordinate document flow arrangementsusing the Redcap network.

Bonisagus magi: the non-reciprocal system

The simplest document flow system is charitable:the non-reciprocal system. House Bonisagus magiare required to publish their researches by the Code,being repaid with privileges outside the documentflow system, so a great river of literature flows out ofthem, eventually permeating the rest of the Order.This is one of the underpinnings of House Bonisa-gus’s Hermetic Prestige virtue.

How information generated by the Bonisagusdisperses is entirely up to the Bonisagus. It must bemade available, in some symbolic fashion, to everymagus in the Order. Some Bonisagus magi uselibraries of record, so that, for example, all of theirfindings are stored in Durenmar and dispatched toanyone who is willing to pay the copying and trans-port costs. Alternatively, the Bonisagus might onlyprovide a document surrogate (an abstract), andDurenmar redirects enquiries. In either case, HouseBonisagus has a duty to circulate information atnominal cost.

Simple reciprocal systems

As an example, consider the need that seniorFlambeau magi have for tractatus. One, let’s call him

33

Aurelius, may write a tractatus concerning the Ball of

Abysmal Flame and make it known that he will lend acopy of it to the next magus who gives him a copy ofan equivalent tractatus. Bernadette takes him up onthe offer, then each of them make it known that theywill lend a copy of their respective tractatus towhomever lends each of them a copy of an equiva-lent work. The third magus, let’s call him Carolus,sends his tractatus to Aurelius and Bernadette, whosend him tractatus in return. As this system expands,it generates document flow.

This system is expandable until you includeeveryone who wants a tractatus of Ball of Abysmal

Flame, and costs can be reduced if a cap is set on thenumber of copies new members have to make, sothat old members need to wait a few seasons for eachnew tractatus. As the scheme expands the payoffincreases far more rapidly than the copying costs,assuming the magus has a scribe to do the work forhim. The costs begin to decline once the first set ofmagi begin to pass away, since the information theyadded is still available, it’s just that it is now “free”, asort of bonus for purchasing the information writtenout by the living members of the group.

The system works equally well for other books,and isn’t the only document flow system that theOrder has, but it’s one of the simplest, and onewhich most player characters could seed. It comesunglued if someone gives the privileged material inthe system to an outsider, who then propagates it,but with enough enforcers in the advantaged group,that’s unlikely to occur.

Cost of document flow

If a library cycles documents so that, over eachperiod of twenty years, it has had access to 1 point ofmaterial, this costs an added point. A point of mate-rial is 300 levels of spells, 90 levels of Hermeticbooks, 60 levels of mundane books.

Remember that as new material cycles in, oldmaterial of equal value (as agreed by the storyguide)is cycled out. The collection, in effect, cycles at therate of 50/0 a year and can, in theory, be replacedentirely every twenty years. Every added pointincreases this amount by 50/0. If the covenant has theright to copy the material, before cycling it out again,then multiply the cost by five. Covenants may mixcopyable and non-copyable documents in a singleagreement, at the storyguide’s discretion.

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Ex Bibliotheca

Durenmareby Eric Minton

It takes a good bit of time and effort to create acovenant library. Turning that library into some-thing more than a list of names and numbers ismuch harder. Here you’ll find all manner of pre-

generated magical and mundane books to flesh outyour Saga’s libraries. Feel free to submit your ownbooks, scrolls, clay tablets, and so on for inclusion inthis column.

To determine a book’s point value during cove-nant creation, use the following formulae:

Liber Quaestionum: Target + QualitySumma: 2 × (Level + Quality)Tractatus: 3 × Quality

� � �

Lesser Transformations

By Menda scholae TytaliGlossed by Invidia Argentata scholae TytaliAppearance: This book’s leather cover bears no

markings other than a few scratches and scrapes. Asimple leather clasp holds its covers shut. Within, thepages are of inferior parchment, poorly bound, withonly a few crude illustrations. The penmanship isblocky but functional, without colored accents ofany kind. Elegant glosses in red and black fill most ofthe available margins.

Description: A poorly written treatise on thepractical applications of the art of Muto. While theauthor seems knowledgeable enough with regard tothe subject matter, she spills her thoughts onto thepage in no particular order, and rarely explains themethods by which she draws her conclusions. Theglosses clear up the ambiguities of the text quite well,though much of the glossator’s efforts seem devotedto barbed comments about the author’s magical

skills, writing ability and odious personal habits.Three spells, unglossed, occupy the final pages of thework.

Mechanics: Muto Summa, Level 6, Quality 7.Contains the following spells: Eyes of the Cat, Eyes of

the Eagle, Nose of the Hound.Cost: 26 points of Arts + 15 levels of spells.

Jupiter’s Stone

By Thalassinus scholae BonisagiAppearance: The cover of this slim black volume

bears the astrological sigil for Jupiter in dull silverpaint. Its corner-pieces and locked clasp are of ironcoated with tin. The book’s pages are dyed purple,with the text scribed in an elegant hand using silver,white and gold inks. The illustrations are small, fewin number, and cunningly woven into otherwiseabstract decorative borders.

Description: This work dwells on the functionsand applications of violet amethyst in Rego magics,with specific attention paid to the spell known as theAura of Rightful Authority. The author provides sever-al examples of how to use this spell to manipulatemundanes, and shows no scruples in toying withhuman hearts and minds to achieve political ends.

Mechanics: Rego Tractatus, Quality 4, Aura of

Rightful Authority.Cost: 12 points of Arts.

Invocations to Faunus

By Maria Acerna doctrinae MerinitaAppearance: This book’s leather covers are pro-

tected by an ochre-dyed linen slipcase and held shutby a knotted leather thong. The handwriting is oddlystyled, with tightly cramped text interspersed withlong, floating flourishes. The initial letter of eachpage is excessively large and wound about withimages of legendary creatures and forest scenes inmany colors.

Description: This is an elementary work, dealingwith a handful of basic techniques for employing theArt of Animál. The author couches these techniqueswithin a metaphorical construct that equates specificwords, gestures and forces with specific pagan deitiesand legendary beasts. The text contains enoughinformation on these mythic elements to make itworthwhile to peruse the text for that informationalone.

Mechanics: Animal Summa, Level 4, Quality 7;Legend Lore Tractatus, Quality 3.

Cost: 22 points of Arts + 9 points of Knowl-edges.

On the Efficacy of Pearl, Crystal and Aqua-

marine in Spells of Aquam

By Caelantea scholae BonisagiAppearance: This slim, leather-bound volume is

in good condition. It bears a boss, clasp and corner-pieces of tarnished silver, all of which are set withpearls and cabochon-cut aquamarines. Inside, thebook reveals an artist’s hand: the script flows deli-cately, with key points picked out in several colors,and vivid illustrations lie scattered throughout the

35

New spells

Eyes of the Eagle

Muto Corpus 5R: Touch, D: Sun/Year, T: Ind.Spell Focus: A Eagle’s Feather (+1)Requisite: AnimálGives the target the eyes of an eagle. An eagle’s

eyes are keener than a human’s, and so the targetgains a +3 bonus to rolls based on visual acuity.This bonus does not apply to ranged attack rolls.

(Design: Change a small part of a person 5)

Nose of the Hound

Muto Corpus 5R: Touch, D: Sun/Year, T: Ind.Spell Focus: A Dog’s Nose (+1)Requisite: AnimálGives the target the nose of a hound, allowing

him or her to discern subtle distinctions betweenodors, and to track others by smell. The target gainsa +3 bonus to all rolls based on smell.

(Design: Change a small part of a person 5)

text. To serve as a bookmarker, a white silk ribbon issewn into the upper edge of the spine.

Description: This work is directed at students ofAquam who already have some knowledge of thatArt under their belts. It presents a series of dialogueson the Hermetic properties of certain gemstones,highlighting their different uses and tying those dif-ferences to specific techniques employed in Aquammagics.

Mechanics: Aquam Liber Quaestionum, Level 6,Quality 12.

Cost: 18 points of Arts.

Book of Lights

By Ardea Irata scholae FlambonisAppearance: This is a plain, well-worn leather

volume, its title picked out on the spine in flakinggold leaf. The contents are written in a clean, clearhand, but without color and with only a few spareillustrations.

Description: This is a simple, straightforwardprimer on the fundamentals of applied Ignem. Thetext deals primarily with the creation and transfor-mation of light, though the author pays some smallattention to the application of the same principles toaffect heat and flame. At no point does the textexpound on the theoretical underpinnings of the artof Ignem. An appendix contains a number of simplelight spells for the novice.

Mechanics: Ignem Liber Quaestionum, Target 0,Quality 9. Contains the following spells: Evoke the

Unnatural Radiance, Lamp Without Flame, Light Shaft of

the Night, The Many-Hued Conflagration and Call the Side-

real Spark.Cost: 9 points of Arts + 45 spell levels.

Earth, Metal and Stone

By Latertianum scholae Verditius

Appearance: A tome of average thickness, boundin dyed black leather and capped at the corners withdull iron. The book’s handwriting rates only slightlyabove a scrawl, but colored highlights and some skill-ful illustrations increase the readability of the text.

Description: Discusses the art of Terram interms of the magical and mundane characteristics ofvarious earthly materials. The author shows greatinterest in the subject matter, going into great detailabout the effects of a substance’s malleability, tensilestrength and crystalline structure on its magical prop-erties. While this is primarily a book of magic, theastute reader may glean information on natural phi-losophy from its pages.

Mechanics: Terram Summa, Level 8, Quality 8;Philosophiae Tractatus, Quality 4.

Cost: 32 points of Arts + 12 points of Knowl-edges.

The Founders: Twelve Biographies

By Felix Lacertus scholae Bonisagus

Appearance: This lovely work has seen betterdays. Its tooled leather cover shows much wear, andthe pages are dog-eared and flaking. The fine callig-raphy incorporates several colors of ink to highlightspecific passages, and each page starts with a minia-ture likeness of the relevant Founder or one of thatFounder’s works. Black blots obscure the text in sev-eral places, and a whole group of pages has beentorn out. Sparsely glossed in a rough hand, particu-larly around the biographies of Guernicus, Tremereand Tytalus.

Description: The author explores what is knownof the lives of the Founders of the Order in evoca-tive, meandering detail. Unfortunately, the book waswritten only a few years before the Schism War, andit bears the marks of the ensuing Quaesitorial cen-sorship. The pages between the entries for Criamonand Flambeau have been removed, and all referencesto the Nameless House and its founder have beenblotted out. The glosses are of unknown authorship;they appear to be the work of a conspiracy theoristseeking evidence of a Tremere plot to seize controlof the Order. Just before the missing section, a scrib-bled note reads, “Now eleven biographies. Shoddymathematics. Soon to be ten?”

Mechanics: Organization Lore (Order of Her-mes) Tractatus, Quality 6.

Cost: 18 points of Knowledges.

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New spells

Evoke the Unnatural Radiance

Creo Ignem 5R: Touch, D: Sun/Perm, T: SmallSpell Focus: A Firefly (+1)Causes an object to radiate light equivalent to a

torch or a lamp. Casting requisites: appropriate tothe object affected.

(Design: Light an area as if by torchlight 5,reduce range to Touch -10, increase duration toSun +10)

Call the Sidereal Spark

Creo Ignem 15R: Near, D: Sun, T: SmallSpell Focus: A Live Firefly (+3)Requisites: RegoYou conjure up a floating speck of twinkling,

blue-white light that illuminates an area as if bytorchlight. You may direct the spark to stay in oneplace, to move in any direction, or to follow a per-son or object. It is not intelligent, however, and can-not act on conditional commands. The spell ends ifyou become separated from the spark by more thanfifteen paces.

(Design: Light an area as if by torchlight 5,increase duration to Sun +10)

Heretic’s Corner:

Fighting with the

Combat Systemby Andrew Gronosky

Michael has graciously agreed to let mebe the guest author of this issue’sHeretic’s Corner. I am going to tack-le a thorny subject: the combat sys-

tem.

When most players think of the ArM 4 combatsystem, they think of the well-known problem ofcombat Encumbrance. I think this problem distractspeople from deeper issues. Encumbrance is easilyfixed by using the rules from Ordo Nobilis or a houserule. There are other, more fundamental features ofthe whole combat system that I feel make it inher-ently unwieldy. These are the subject of my column.

The combat rules are highly interrelated, makingthem difficult to reform incrementally. For clarity, Iwill suggest changes one at a time, followed by thereasons I recommend each change and the impact Ithink the change would have. This is not meant toimply that each change should be considered inde-pendently. Quite the reverse is true: the rules aremeant to support each other, so the only way toreform them is to reform the whole system at once.

A Word About Realism

In the context of combat rules for a role-playinggame, especially a medieval fantasy game, realism is amatter of taste. Realistically, which should do moredamage, a crossbow or a longbow? I don’t know, Inever hope to be hit with either. Should Encum-brance give a penalty to Initiative and Defense, orInitiative only? One could argue either way. No oneknows first-hand what medieval combat was reallylike. There are modern re-enactments, certainly, butthe participants take precautions not to hurt oneanother — quite the opposite of actual combat!

It is important that combat rules be plausible, butthat’s about all we can ask for. Even real medieval

warriors would probably not have agreed on the rel-ative merits of different weapons and armor. Itmight be entertaining to discuss “realistic” medievalcombat, but such discussions are only speculative.

Now, the proposed changes:

Use a Single Melee AttackArM 4 states on p. 168, albeit not very clearly, that

when engaged with multiple opponents, a combatantattacks each opponent every round. The same Attackand Defense rolls are used against all opponents, asif that made things simpler. This seems to be truewhether or not attacking all opponents is actually toone’s advantage.

Change this so each character makes only onemelee attack per round.

Rationale

Complexity in combat does not necessarily arisefrom rolling lots of dice rolling a die is quick andpainless but from digging through the rules for lotsof modifiers and making lots of comparisons of onedie against another.

The “multiple engagements” example on p. 168 istelling. Sir Bors is fighting three bandits, one ofwhom is trying to engage him at Touch range and theothers of whom are engaging at Reach.

Depending on the actual engagement range(decided by the Initiative roll), Sir Bors may or maynot have different combat modifiers against each ofhis opponents. Sir Bors’ player needs to independ-ently calculate Attack and Defense modifiers againsteach opponent as the engagement range and otherbattlefield conditions change from one round to thenext. True, the modifiers might be the same againstall opponents, but the point is that the player needsto count opponents and check each one for melee-combat modifiers.

Things would be much more complicated if SirBors had an ally in the fight. With one knight onthree bandits, there are six Attack-vs-Defense testseach round (three for Sir Bors’ attacks, and one foreach bandit’s attack). With two knights on three ban-dits — adding only one combatant to the fight —there would be twelve! In general, the number of

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comparisons in battle is 2 × N × M, where N and Mare the numbers of combatants on each side, eventhough the number of die rolls is only N + M. Thisis without even considering the initiative contests.No wonder p. 167 urges the storyguide to break abattle into sub-melees!

Simultaneous attacks against every opponent is afeature that, as far as I know, is unique to the ArM 4

combat system. I submit that this is because othergames that considered the idea, discarded it asunmanageable.

Impact

Eliminating multiple attacks swings the balance ina “multiple engagement” even further in favor of themore numerous side. The -3 penalty for Attack andDefense due to multiple engagements would have tobe changed to give the less-numerous side a fairchance. There are other reasons to fix that penalty,discussed below.

Use a Cyclical Initiative SystemBy cyclical initiative, I mean a system where each

combatant rolls initiative at the start of battle, andthen each acts in descending order of initiative. Eachround, everyone goes in the same order they don’t re-roll initiative. Many readers will recognize cyclical ini-tiative as the system in 3rd Edition D&D and the d20

System.

Rationale

One should experiment with this system in orderto appreciate it. At first, I was skeptical, but I foundthat 3rd Edition D&D battles flow much moresmoothly and efficiently. We should not be averse toborrowing a system that works.

Initiative in Ars Magica is simpler on paper thanit is in practice. Reading the Combat chapter, onegets the impression that the combatants on each sideline up in neat rows and conveniently pair off intoone-on-one sub-melees. In my Saga, the only timethis happens is when I decree it does, overruling thewishes of my players and any logical tactics on thepart of the NPC’s.

If I let the players and NPC’s do what’s actuallyto their advantage, all hell breaks loose. The PC’s andNPC’s each try to crash through and/or around theenemy line to outflank opponents, surround them,and/or engage the enemy commander. We call thissituation a “football play,” since it resembles nothingmore than the line of scrimmage in American foot-ball. We end up having to resolve movement in ini-tiative order anyway. This doesn’t happen only occa-sionally: it happens every battle. The “football play”is a logical consequence of the advantage to begained by engaging one’s opponent at superior odds.

As written, the rules call for initiative rolls onlyoccasionally. In practice, they call for them everyround because a sensible PC and a sensible NPC donot simply pair off, preferring to take part in a “foot-ball play.” Simultaneous movement is a real problemhere. One could simply make it a rule to roll initiativeevery round, but cyclical initiative is more expedient

because the storyguide doesn’t have to continually re-arrange the order in which every combatant moves.

Impact

Cyclical initiative — or indeed, round-by-roundinitiative rolls — eliminate the need for combatantsto declare their actions in advance. A character sim-ply acts when his turn comes up in the initiativeorder. This means the Initiative total would have tobe independent of the combatant’s weapon, since atthe time of the Initiative roll, one wouldn’t knowwhat weapon or action the each combatant woulduse during his turn.

Initiative would have to become a straight Qik +Enc roll. The First Strike bonus, and the engagementcontest itself, would have to go. Both of thesechanges would simplify combat.

Without planning each action at the start of theround, the whole six-phase combat round ceases tomake sense. Everyone simply moves and attacks (orcasts spells) on his turn. This would certainly changethe character of ArM combat, although I would con-sider it a change for the better. The most frustratingaspect of ArM 4 combat is that one must declareone’s action at the start of the round, then waitthrough the next few phases of the combat round,watching one’s battle plan unravel, remaining com-mitted to an action that might no longer make sense.As a player, I want instant gratification when the sto-ryguide asks me for my action, I want to make thebest move according to the situation at hand, andhave it take effect immediately. As a storyguide, Idon’t want to plan each NPC’s action at the begin-ning of the round, then keep track of each one’s planthrough all six phases of the combat round.

Magic would become much more effective if it’snot relegated to the end of the round. This may ormay not be desirable.

Getting rid of the engagement contest would beno great loss. It would leave open the question ofhow to resolve the case when an attacker with ashorter weapon (such as a dagger) tries to close witha defender wielding a longer weapon (such as a pike).

D&D handles this situation with a rather compli-cated set of rules called “Attacks of Opportunity.”The curious reader can study them in the d20 System

Reference Document, a condensed form of the 3rd

Edition D&D rules available online at: www.wiz-ards.com/D20.

“Attacks of Opportunity” are a bit more involvedthan ArM needs. I believe a simple alternative wouldsuffice- whenever someone enters the reach of anenemy’s weapon, he must stop moving for the round.This is a quick-and-dirty replacement for severalparagraphs of ArM 4 or D&D 3 text; only playtest-ing can determine if it’s a serviceable replacement.

The D&D system includes rules for altering one’sposition in the initiative order, for instance, by delay-ing one’s action. A lightweight version of these ruleswould probably be needed for ArM. I think it’s muchsimpler to use rules of that kind than to untangle a“football play.”

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Use Miniatures or CountersI’m sorry, as much as I like Ars Magica’s empha-

sis on storytelling, combat is no time to improvisedetails like where everyone is standing. Use miniaturefigures or counters on a gridded map with a scale ofone pace to the inch. I prefer a hexagonal grid over asquare grid.

Rationale

Especially when there are more than two or threecombatants on a side, I find that using some kind ofscale map greatly reduces misunderstandings, mis-takes, and needless bickering. Maybe this is a matterof taste, but I find miniatures so helpful that I thinkthey deserve more favorable emphasis in the rules.

I like a hex grid instead of a square grid for tworeasons. First, there is no fussing over diagonalmovement. Second, only six enemies can surroundone opponent, not eight.

Impact

One of the downsides of cyclical initiative is thatis pretty much requires the use of miniatures.

On each combatant’s turn, the player needs toknow exactly where every opponent is so he candecide where to move and whom to attack. Usingminiatures does make more practical certain tactics:for instance, it’s much easier to determine whether ashield grog can interpose himself between a magusand a charging enemy.

Reform the Multiple Engagement

PenaltyInstead of the brutal -3 penalty to Attack and

Defense (p. 168) for the second and each subsequentopponent with whom one is engaged, reduce thepenalty to -1.

Rationale

By itself, this doesn’t simplify much. But it wouldchange how a battle unfolds, assuming the playersunderstand the rules.

The -3 multiple-engagement penalty greatlyencourages characters to try to gang up on a singleopponent. I believe the many-on-one advantagegreatly outweighs the risk that comes from each char-acter in the larger group being attacked at once.Obviously, it’s also very important to come to the aidof a friend who finds himself surrounded. The ruleencourages the very situation that is the biggestheadache for all concerned: a free-for-all where allthe combatants belong to one huge melee and every-one attacks everyone every round.

Impact

As I mentioned earlier, restricting each combat-ant to only one melee attack per round changes thebalance of a many-on-one engagement. Keeping thepenalty at -3 would be devastating to any characterwho was unlucky enough to engage two or moreopponents.

Separate Weapons from ShieldsThings can be simplified somewhat by separating

weapons from shields. Make Shield its own Weapon

Skill, replacing Weapon and Shield. If a character isusing a shield, he attacks using his Single WeaponSkill, and defends using his Shield Skill. Simpleenough.

For clarity, the Defense rules should be amendedto something like this: against each incoming attack,you much choose one of three Defense scores touse: your weapon’s Def score, your Shield’s Defscore, or your Brawling Def score. Some modes ofdefense may not work against some forms of attack-for instance, it’s nonsensical to parry arrows with asword, or use a shield or weapon to fend off apouncing dragon.

Rationale

Separating Shield from Weapon reduces theamount of arithmetic in computing combat totals.

Treating the weapon-and-shield combination as aunique weapon with its own characteristics was inno-vative and plausible, but it did add some bookkeep-ing. It takes more than novelty to justify extra lineson a character sheet, especially since shield-userswho carry more than one weapon need to computelots of extra totals (lance with and without shield,sword with and without shield, etc.). I don’t think thesmall “realism” benefit of shield’s effect on Init andAtk is worth the bookkeeping it entails.

Impact

Being able to choose one’s defense against eachattack seems like extra complication, but there arealready exceptions that allow one to use one’s Brawl-ing defense by choice (p. 167). Which is more com-plicated, a standard option or an obscure exception?

This rule would also fix my pet peeve aboutArM 4 combat: a character who is a master withWeapon and Shield Skill (say, skill 6) can be totallyinept if he’s caught without a shield (Single WeaponSkill 0)!

Conclusions

There are many more tweaks one could apply tosimplify the combat rules. For instance, I would pre-fer to replace the Missile Rate Table (p. 164) with afixed rate-of-fire for each weapon.

I don’t see why missile fire and spell targeting usedifferent Ease Factor Adjustments. Such detailsaside, I think this article points out the fundamental,systemic causes of complexity.

Whatever changes the combat system has under-gone from 1st Edition through 4th, it has alwaysretained one defining characteristic: Ars Magica com-bat is deadly. I think the main reason for this is thestress die: disaster hangs on a single botch, or on alucky roll by the enemy. This is very consistent withthe game’s emphasis on magic and the subordinaterole of grogs. Combat is something to be avoidedwhen possible, and grogs must protect vulnerablemagi. As long as this basic tone is preserved, I thinkcombat rules should be as concise, quick-playing, andstraightforward as possible.

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Coming in Issue #5 of

Hermes' Portal

Stories for Elder Magi

(second part)

by Timothy Ferguson

The Magic of the Founders

by David Chart

Seasonal Characters

by Erik Dahl

Omnibus Grimoire:

Scroll I (Animal)

by Andew Gronosky

…