Wolfgang shakes his head. "I believe the meeting should continue, so we can get a better grip on the question of tribunal, while Augustus is still here to advise us and hear our decision. But I am ready to sign the charter now."
Marcus nods, but looks to the new arrivals
"well, I am certainly ready to sign now. I was just considering our new friend's weariness, but if you are happy, then I can easily see the wisdom of speaking while we have such a well respected quisitore here"
"Excellent! Let us proceed," says Clusius with a smile. In turn, each of the magi swears the Oath of Covenant and signs the Charter, starting with Clusius and finishing with Regulus. Augustus Nero signs both copies as witness, before cutting them apart in a wavy line with his sharp quill knife.
Only Eikona's signature is absent from the Charter.
Turning to her, Clusius formally says, "Sodalis Eikona of House Jerbiton, I hereby offer you the status of Protected Guest of this newly-formed Covenant of Tugurium, with the rights, privileges and obligations outlined by our Charter. Do you swear to respect the members of this covenant during your stay here, and to behave in a manner befitting the hospitality offered to you?"
Eikona frowns at the phrasing. "I do not swear for I am a Christian, but I solemnly promise in the presence of those quaesitores, aware that going back on my word will not only cost me the priviledges of a guest but, more importantly still, will stain my hermetic reputation. I think attracting divine wrath would bode ill for this newformed institution."
She falls silent again, curious what kind of tribunal membership the covenant will aspire to.
Wolfgang clears his throat softly. "Well, Divine Wrath aside, I will restate my earlier question. Augustus, how strong is the Lotharingian movement? Are there allies enough there to protect us at the next round of tribunals? Or will we just draw a target on ourselves? By the way, are any of us a skilled Certamen disputant?" He looks around the table.
Marcus shakes his head.
"Sorry, no"
Regulus answers with a dry "no", remembering the results of his last Certamen duel, against Valerian, years ago.
"If Augustus is not too weary I'm not against hearing his opinions on the three tribunals and the Lotharingian project, but I ask my sodales that we refrain from any formal decisions before I have had some time to rest."
Augustus shakes his head, "It is not my place to advise you on the Lotharingian movement. For one, I am not well connected with the magi who support the formation -- of reformation -- of such a Tribunal. Second, as a senior Quaesitor of Normandy, any information I could provide you might be construed as an endorsement or condemnation of the movement. This would put me in conflict with my Quaesitorial duties."
"What I can do, however, is point you to some of the major proponents and oppoenents of the Lotharingian initiative. It will be up to you to decide your covenant's stance on the issue. And of course, until you join a Tribunal you will have little official way to weight on the issue."
(OOC Leaving the names out of the narrative, in case someone decides to run a story about that.)
Clusius chimes in, "As for which Tribunals would be more interesting for us, I must admit I know very little about the rules of the Rhine or Greater Alps. I could not even say I understand the rules of Normandy very well."
"Decision without information is folly. So I would like to delegate one or more of the members to gather as much information about the three Tribunals. Maybe speak with some who know the rules of each, and how they actually work instead of just what is written down. Then present the Council with a summary of the requirements, advantages and challenges of each Tribunal. Then we would be in a better position to decide."
Marcus nods along
"I'm afraid I have had an almost painful lack of interest in politics so far in my life and it seems like it might have gone too far. Can someone tell me what the proposal for the lothariginian tribunal is?"
Wolfgang smiles, thinking of his parens' tirade when he heard about the Lotharingian idea.
"I don't know the details, but it's a movement to found a new tribunal, roughly following the borders of Lotharingia, to avoid the ossified politics of the Rhine and the difficulties of Normandy.
I know little about Normandy, but I've heard that the Alps is hard even for a single magus to join, let alone a whole covenant; and I can speak of the Rhine knowledgeably, new covenants are quite rare there because they must have a sponsor from every existing covenant, which means getting Fengheld, Durenmar, and Dankmar; the three of whom couldn't agree that water is wet.
The reason I suggested Lotharingia is really just that it's a different set of challenges, that might be easier to deal with than joining one of the three we border."
"oh. Durenmar were suspicious of me for even staying at Dankmar. They loathe each other. That seems like it would be a near absolute bar to entering the Rhine "
"Actually," Augustus reacts with a smile, "having a liege covenant is not required. It is technically easy to become a covenant in Normandy. It only requires exclusive access to one or more vis sources which total at least one pawn per year per magus. From what I understand, the vis sources within this valley are more than sufficient for that. The covenant must also have a council chamber which is at least a day's journey from another covenant's council chamber. Again, not a problem for Tugurium."
"The difficulty comes from how Normandy treats vis sources, which are scarce in most of the tribunal. Any vis source within a day's return journey from the covenant, by foot and unaided by magic, would be considered seisin , or belonging to Tugurium exclusively."
"Disposition of any vis sources more distant than that would be up to the covenant to decide. A vote might give Tugurium a legacy lease on those sources," continus Augustus, "or it might give it to another covenant. And a lease must be renewed at each Tribunal meeting, so even if you receive it the first time, you would probably lose it at the following meeting. Those source would then become tropaea ."
"A tropaeum is allocated to a covenant by the Tribunal for a period of seven years. That lease is determined by vote, or sometimes as a trophy from doing well in the Hermetic Tourney."
"The trouble is that discoverers of a new vis source are required to report them to the Tribunal. The discoverer receives an interim lease until the next Tribunal. Not reporting the new vis source is a Low Crime, that of plundering according to Normandy's Peripheral Code. The fine for that is steep."
"So if you join Normandy, you will be immediately required to report all of you vis sources. You will certainly lose several of them at the next Tribunal, unless you can gain enough support to uphold a legacy lease. That is notoriously hard to achieve, unless you are willing to become the vassal of a powerful covenant."
"Furthermore, both the Rhine and the Greater Alps may immediately launch a legal challenge regarding source that they deem to be located within their territory. But that is of course also true if you join either of them -- the other two Tribunals will say that you are raiding their territory for vis."
Clusius listens intently as Augustus explains all this, and look a bit taken aback by the end of the explanation.
Wolfgang looks at Clusius. "I take it there are widespread sources, or you wouldn't look so concerned." He frowns, and turns to Augustus. "What about the rights of the Heirs? Do they help to protect the sources from tribunal claims? I've had a strange idea... what if we founded chapterhouses in multiple tribunals? Is there precedent for that?"
"I'm afraid there are provisions in the Perifereal Code in Normandy that specifically forbid the use of chapter houses to circumvent the Perthean Code - that is the name of the legal device on Normandy that rules over the disposition of vis sources. I'm not aware of how other Tribunals would deal with this - I assume the usual method would be Certamen or bringing charges of deprivation at the Tribunal and wasting everybody's time."
"If I'm not mistaken Fengheld has a chapter house in Normandy, but the Tribunal doesn't recognize it as a true covenant; instead it's a coenobium - a community. This doesn't give them any rights on vis sources."
Clusius looks hesitant...
Augustus does not, "As Regulus said, a chapter house would not be recognized by Normandy."
"I'm not sure that the Rhine would recognize a chapter house from a covenant located in another Tribunal, but I am pretty sure that the Greater Alps would not."
"Until now, I had not released the precise list of Loenardus' vis sources, not even to the Heirs. That was a stipulation of Leonardus' Hermetic Will. Now that the covenant has been officially formed, I will be providing a log of those vis source." He looks at Eikona pointedly, "I would advise that you not share this list with non-members, considering the delicate situation you are in. It would be very easy for magi from any of the Tribunals to try and seize some of your sources. Maybe even raid your secure sources if they think they can get away with it."
"What I can tell you, however, is that about half of them are probably within a day's return journey, for a total of about forty pawns per year. The rest are spread fairly evenly across the three tribunal's territory, up to three days away on foot."
"Wolfgang asked something that I overlooked." Turns to the flambeau.
"I understand that no claim stated on Leonardus will or on our Charter would be above the rules of the Tribunal. In case of divergence the Perifereal Code triumphs. So, the Rights of the Heirs on the vis sources wouldn't stop the ones further than one day from being taken from us, if we chose Normandy."
Regulus yawns a bit - he is tired - and apologizes to the group.
"But on that note: Clusius, would the Heirs have any preferences on the selection of the Tribunal? Or might they offer any help, such as sponsorship if one of them resides at the Rhine? Also, which was Leonardus last covenant? In which Tribunal?"
Wolfgang says quietly, "I think anything but Lotharingian will cost them vis, won't it? Unless they start and win a political border fight... either way that's 23 years and 3 tribunals away. We're in a cleft stick. How long can we hide?"
"Each of the three reside in a different Tribunal -- my mater just moved to Valnastium in the Alps, Wilhelm is in the Rhine and Eduardus is in Normandy."
"They haven't expressed a preference, but they did share an expectation that the more vis they get, the better. How we achieve that is up to us."
Regulus turns to Wolfgang again.
"If the Lotharingian movement is strong that would be a good option, but just as you said, that is 23 years in the future. Maybe we could gather the support of a few covenants to join another Tribunal, with the promise of helping to reform the Tribunal when the time comes? Of course, this is on the premise that there are actually magi trying to push for a Lotharingian Tribunal."
"I think only the Normandy is likely to result in a loss of vis sources. We could try to convince the rest of the Tribunal to grant the sources to us as legacies, if we could offer something in return, but every seven years we would have some politics to deal with" - Regulus considers for a moment the odds of Valerian interfering with this.
"Of course, Normandy has it's perks. Cases of magi harvesting from someone else's vis source are almost unheard of. We would also need to check the full list of sources that Augustus is going to disclose, if any requires skill to collect it becomes a luctatione, anyone who manages to harvest keeps the vis. We would be in advantage, since we would already know when and how to collect. And since some of the sources seem to be in inter-tribunal areas, Rhine and Alps would claim that these are not subject to Normandy rules - well, they would also want to stop us from harvesting, but that can't be avoided. This is going to happen whatever Tribunal we chose."
"I'm less sure about the Rhine, but I believe we don't need to pay any vis, and the Perthean Code is not valid there."
"Finally, the Alps. As I understand we don't pay anything either, we just need to show that we own a lot of vis. I don't recall the exact amount, but it is huge."
"The main problem would be that, as far as I know, they haven't accepted the foundation of new covenants for a few centuries. But if the last covenant of Leonardus was in the Alps... I don't know... Maybe we could claim that Tugurium was actually founded by Leonardus, if not de facto, at least in will, and that as heir to Leonardus and princeps of Tugurium, Clusius is entitled to a vote in the Alps, all else being mere formality. This is pushing it a bit... but maybe it could be done, with the help of your mater and the support of Valnastium. If we want to join the Alps, of course. I'm not sure what advantages that could bring us."
Regulus gives Clusius and Eikona a look, and them the others, waiting for comments.