Through the Aegis: Developed Covenants

We're thrilled to announce the newest ArM5 sourcebook, THROUGH THE AEGIS. This sourcebook details several covenants in detail, from Spring to Second Spring and all seasons in between. Here's the link for more details: atlas-games.com/product_tables/AG0311.php

Nice. :smiley:

Seems like the "Vanilla Covenant Project" (launched last year by this post) inspired a number of authors to create a more detailed official supplement.

Cheers for that!

There's no causal link as far as I remember. I do seem to remember having to bite my lip when that project kicked off though.

Convergent thinking, then. :smiley:

And, of course, a look at the shiny new cover...

God the pun of this title is AWEFUL.

But the cover is pretty awesome!

All I care about is: Are these covenants that have been established in previous books (e.g. Fengheld in Guardians of the Forest) or completely new ones that we haven't heard of before?

Good question Toa... One Mix would be very well.

The call for proposals for Through the Aegis went out on November 28th, 2011. So, no, it wasn't inspired by the Vanilla Covenant Project; it went into its third round of playtesting several weeks before that post.

The contents are all new covenants, set in ArM5 Tribunals. One of the things the book provides examples of is how to fit your own covenant into the politics of established Tribunals.

The cover is indeed awesome. (I don't have anything to do with that side of things, so I'm allowed to say that.)

The title should have a credit all of its own; it did in the draft I turned over to Atlas.

Mark wasn't the only one biting his tounge back then.

Yes. Good thing some of us could snigger on the author's list or behind closed doors in playtest groups.

Also, wasn't there just recently a thread complaining about the lack of library details in covenant descriptions in Tribunal books? At least now we'll have examples for some covenants.

Vanilla Covenants and Through the Aegis are completely different in focus, though. Vanilla Covenants was about making starting covenants for new troupes, using obvious design choices , and about building community by having us work together on a writing project . TtA isn't about that at all: it's about novel uses of the rules, created in a closed group.

I find the idea that you were sniggering at us on the author and playtest lists rather less classy than I hope for in this fandom. Care to share the joke? We were aware of the book's solicitation - we didn't see the projects as overlapping.

Honestly, it's hard enough to get fans to write things without authors mocking them when they try, and that's what you're doing here. Mocking us behind our backs was just a hurtful thing to do. Announcing that you did it in your product launch thread not only breaks your NDA, it's being trollish.

I can't say that your post has made me more excited to seek out the product, Christian.

I actually took the thread as very healthy validation that we were (to some degree or other) fulfilling a need that the community had self-identified. There was certainly no mockery involved. In fact, I was certainly looking forward to seeing the finished result.

Timothy Ferguson:
Please accept my sincere apology. I see my choice of wording was poor, and that snigger means something entirely else than I had intended. As a non-native english speaker I sometimes use the wrong words. I meant no disrespect or any offense. Not to you, to any fans participating in or following the design projekt, or anyone else.

What I meant was that as the subject of Vanilla Covenants project appeared on the forum, while we were writing Developed Covenants, I was thrilled by the interest in the subject. And this brought a smile to my face. But bound by NDA the community at large could not be made aware of this upcoming product. I found this uplifting as well as unfortunate. I did not look into detail at what the forum project was about. But writing up a covenant seemed to me to be somewhat comparable to what we were writing at the time. I thought the interest in the subject was great, but sadly Developed Covenants would not be launched until long after this time, and hoped interest would not drop in the meantime.

Also, I did not realize that some authors were aware of the solicitation, but I now see my comments make me sound like a classless troll.

Again, please accept my apologies. And I hope this unfortunate incident does not tarnish your oppinion of the upcoming product, or me for that matter.

Hello Christian,

Well, we've all had an unfortunate choice of words at some point. Sorry for flaming you. Peace?

I wondered, after I'd sent it, if it would be a translation sort of thing. I mean, you authors list was only five guys, and I've written with all of them at one point or another, and I knew that's not how they worked.

So, thanks for reassuring me.

As to the authors of Vanilla Covenants knowing about this book...I'm not sure who knew what or how. I know some of us discussed how we thought the two would be different. I, personally, heard about it when the request for pitches came out back forever ago. I don't think I pitched anything because if I had been rejected the material would have eventually hit my blog or cut file (the scrap heap where I keep ideas to use again later) and there's nothing there that twigs my memory. If I did pitch something it must have been so weak I didn't keep a copy of it (or it was something I've since used and removed from my cut file, like a covenant in the ocean surrounded by a wall, or something on the Nile, or whatnot.)

I'm not sure how the other authors had heard about it. I often find fans in the US and UK are better informed than me, because they get to heard David's secret letter to Grand Tribunal attendees, and I've never heard one, only gossiped with people afterwards.

So, sorry about this little flare up. I'm sure it will be a well written book. I quite like the cover, but partially that's because I'm a huge, huge, huge fan of Master of Magic and there's just something about the covenant on the cover whi9ch reminds me of the Age of Wonders series.

Ah, I'm not the only one then :slight_smile:

Peace for sure Timothy. I'm glad we could straighten this out, or defuse rather. I think maybe my Foreigner's Parma worked, because I'm not burnt to a crisp at all :wink:

Yes, if you attend a Grand Tribunal lucky enough to also have David Chart appear you hear a lot about what's in the pipeline.
I'm looking forward to seeing the finished work too, the real book is so much nicer with illustrations and insert boxes than the raw text. Awesome cover (as usual). It was a fun and challenging book to contribute to, and I hope it finds use among the gamers.

I think I'll personally find great use for the book, mainly as a "template" for new covenants that I can't afford the time to fully create myself. But this bit you just mentioned about guiding in the process of "inserting" covenants into the political web of already-steablished Tribunals seems really interesting, and I think that'll be the first thing I'll look into when it comes out. It's an interesting take on the subject matter.

I really love the cover. Rather more high-fantasy than others, but I like that for a change of pace. The magic never bothered me anyway... :wink:

I will be sure to have the sourcebook's title credit included in the credits page, David. Already noted. :slight_smile:

Also, regarding the cover: I am a huge fan of including more of the fantastic in these illustrations. Everything needs a little magic in it, and sometimes a lot of magic, or else it's not Ars Magica. YMMV.