Herman wrote the Corpus summa.
Yes, I get that. I was thinking there was a reason they were here. I've seen references to him, but I don't understand them, entirely.
I guess, what more are you asking? Want to yank them all temporarily? They never made it to the library?
I guess it doesn't really matter now, but I'm wondering about power balance, and the way that I've been giving each player a certain number of build points to bring with him.
In some ways, we're a bit vis poor, based on the resources listed on the wiki. Roughly 6 pawns per active magus (Heims, Cygna, Azura, Viscaria, Ra'am) per year.
We are knowledge rich by comparison, but only for our use, since all the books are covered by Cow and Calf. And our stores are absolutely devastatingly low. We can't even cast an Aegis, until we sort out where some of the Vim is. Our power level is more closely governed by how much Vis we have, since it is the major currency of the game.
Not all. Just the ones paid for with character-build-points, (and your Prospero book may count as Lineage Heirloom, which can be copied from, but is supposed to be passed on to your apprentices). That leaves 30 books NOT under Cow and Calf. Remove the Vain ones (and maybe you shouldn't, those Lockhart books may be worth something), and you've still got 24 books, including several high level summa, and L8Q11 Parma book, and a really impressive copy of Quran. Hardly a pittance.
More to the point, what you don't have are many viable trading partners within the Tribunal. The only ones with local contacts are Jaime (a political extremist) and Viscaria (whose covenant of apprenticeship is Reconquista). Mind you, that was intentional on my part.
On the other hand, you're not the only new magi coming in to Iberia. And being part of a minority political movement, you'll probably get favorable trading terms from the two other Roman covenants.
Well, Saturday and Sunday involved a trip to Columbus, OH and back (wife's birthday, shopping expidition). Today, I had planned to put up a shed in the backyard, but the rain from a system/and or Lee blew that out of the water. Next weekend, if the weather is decent, I probably won't post until the evenings while I get the shed up.
I'm actually lurking a lot more the past two weeks than previous (keeping up with what's being posted - it was mainly two customer site visits to our location and some new site installs that were killing me at work) but I still can't guarantee regular postings, at least until the end of the 3rd quarter (end of September) and reassess work then.
So... umm... leave them there? If they're unbalancing anything, then yes, take them out...
I'm actually lurking a lot more the past two weeks than previous (keeping up with what's being posted - it was mainly two customer site visits to our location and some new site installs that were killing me at work) but I still can't guarantee regular postings, at least until the end of the 3rd quarter (end of September) and reassess work then.
So... umm... leave them there? If they're unbalancing anything, then yes, take them out...
I don't think they're unbalancing, so I'd be against them being removed, personally.
We are low powered from a vis point of view. 31 total pawns for 6 magi if you pick back up for semi-regular story interaction. And your books are governed by Cow and Calf, so we can't trade them for anything... In any event, book trading is an almost a one time thing, and the prospects around here (Iberian Tribunal) are probably pretty slim.
Which is maybe why some think of them as jerks 
Saying to someone "your beloved mother is gonna die horribly from her cancer in a few months" may be perfectly true, but it's also something pretty rude and insensitive to say.
As for Amos build points, we can keep them from the moment, they aren't much on a bother, since, hopefully, chico'll be able to come back.
If he ain't, and it poses problem, it's easy to have them disappear, either definitely, or temporarily (with a story allowing their recovery, total or partial).
I seriously get that, however, just as you're playing Heims as someone who lost love and is therefore chivalrous to all women don't forget that Cygna can take care of herself well enough on her own. Yes, Hiems is chivalrous, but we are playing Magi in Mythic Europe, and basically they treat each other as equals. Heims' actions could be misconstrued, too. My attempt to develop Ra'am is to show how he's focused on learning and information, not power per se. He could literally bore anyone to sleep with his deep knowledge on Magic Theory, if someone lets him. 
Can he be a jerk? Sure, but he doesn't necessarily realize it until after he's been a jerk. This is actually fairly typical behavior. How many times IRL have you behaved in a way you later regretted?
Thank goodness Arya had Azura intervene, because this was headed for certamen, and I was having concerns based on the First Council Meeting thread... Heims was confrontational, and rightfully so. However, it appeared he was confronting him on Ra'am's facts. Telling someone to apologize is rarely successful. Getting someone to understand why they need to apologize is much more successful. And Ra'am was about to, but then everyone ran off. He was deeply embarrassed by the implication of what he was saying and stuffed his head in his book and started praying, and then everyone ran off. Except Azura, with her inappropriate comments...
The Equipment Data window lies.
No, actually, it shows you the net addition to the die roll. It presumes you're wearing the armor with the best soak, if you have two different kinds. For example, Étienne has full metal reinforced armor listed on his equipment sheet. The Init column for the long sword shows 0. If I delete it, it shows +2. If you want to see the actual inputs, do a print Preview through the ArsMagica5.prt template.
Perhaps I should've started a 2.5 OOC thread...
Be that as it may, I'll ask the question here.
Just how does a Mecere House work? Or do we decide(see next paragraph) how it works in this case?
According to HoH:TL, there is one in Barcelona. Is that still the case in this saga? Would the two be competing, or covering different areas due to the distance between locations? I think as players, we need to process through the known knowns, the unknown knowns, and the unknown unknowns before we go down that rabbit hole. Is that a fair request?
We've never really discussed the Mercere House issue in depth, but that's what Azura is proposing. Will it be like another covenant on the grounds? What obligations will we have to it and it to Phoenix? I don't mind asking these questions in character, but I'm trying to wrap my head around it as a player, first. I imagine we'll have redcaps coming and going. Visitors galore (makes the Aegis even more important). We'll also have visitors to the covenant. Regularly. Hermetic and otherwise. I'm sure amul loves this. 
More demons stop by, yay! Having Phoenix become the crossroads of the Iberian Tribunal, if you will, has lots of interesting opportunities (someone once told me that the Chinese symbol for opportunity is the same symbol as challenge, I don't know if that's true or not, but I certainly like the sound of it).
What kind of resources can Azura call on? House Mercere is a huge enterprise, and they normally throw resources at something to ensure success and if they see success to be likely. amul was talking about power levels with Amos' build points. Having the ability to flit around Mythic Europe can be problematic in that regard, too. Aren't all Mercere Houses connected to Harco through some type of portal?
So, worst case scenario, Harco's playing both sides (Reconquista/Roman) of Tribunal politics against the middle (bad House Merecere, bad!). Barcelona House is on the Reconquista side, and the House being formed at Pheonix is on the Roman side?
If these things have been discussed in PM, tell me to MYOB and enjoy the ride, but go ahead and give us a detail of what things we know, what things we can expect, because HoH:TL is very sparse on how this setup works.
I remember amul saying the Barca house had been destroyed. I can't find the post now, though, so I may be misremembering.
Mercer Houses can be as independent or as symbiotic as desired.
Mercere Portals are permanent enchantments of Hermes' Portal, the construction of which is long lost. Azura, like every other magus Mercere, desires to rediscover them 
They are not all connected to Harco by Mercer Portals because those were all created centuries ago and many are defunct. A Hermes Portal to Harco would be something to aspire to, but that's 30 Terram vis every year and would probably not be pulled out at the get-go.
More grist for the mill on the 2.5 thread. Umm, only one person has voted to admit Ra'am. I can certainly see Heims saying no. I have no idea how Cygna's going vote (could go either way, although his inisght about Cersei was helpful with collecting the Vis...right?).
The charter doesn't say anything about acceptance as a member requiring a unanimous vote for full membership, just probationary. That might be a lawyerly reading of the charter...and we can argue it in character if necessary.
That being the case it will allow me to resolve the Library situation (remember Heims and Cygna left before Ra'am could apologize).
Of course. What I meant was that being oblivious is no excuse: If you hurt someone without meaning it, a "normal" person will feel sorry nonetheless.
I'm expriming myself not very well... The idea is that a big part of being a jerk is not in your actions, it's in what you do when you realise you've hurt/embarrassed/whatever people.
In my above exemple, the doctor saying that who see you burst into tears and thus suddenly realises he's hurt you will apologize, even if he said the truth. The one who don't even see what he did wrong and what's the problem with you is kinda sociopathic.
lol
I know.
But hiems didn't realize it. To him, it was very blatant, and Ra'am was dismissive of people.
If you want, to me, I thought Ra'am would have said something like "What are you talking about?? I don't understand" and things would have processed roughly from that point, with everything being fine in the end.
It didn't go so well, but that's fine, actually 
Yup, the ideal thing would be to have a mercere portal installed once and for all. That'd sure boost our trade abilities!
Well, Hiems attitude to Ra'am will depend on what he perceives between Cygna and him. If all goes well, he'll assume the situation is resolved, ra'am probably apologized, and all is well.
OTOH, I don't see him saying no, because he has no right saying it. There were conditions to admission posed by Jaime, and these must be the same for everyone, he has no right to backstab jaime.
If Ra'am proves a jerk once they're in control of the covenant, he may oppose him, challenge him, even leave, but as he sees it, for the moment, if Ra'am agrees to the same conditions as him, he has the same rights.
So, both Abdul Fati and Étienne are arthritic. The flaw states, "Your joints are stiff and often painful, making almost any prolonged movement difficult. You are at -3 to rolls involving repetitive movement, sustained over time. Occasionally, the pain is so great that you are seriously disabled. On any movement or combat botch, one of your joints may "lock up," making the limb effectively useless (-6 to all rolls involving it) until you have a chance to rest it for a day or two."
So would 1 or 2 minutes, 10-20 rounds of combat be considered prolonged (repetitive) movement, and then begin applying the -3? What's reasonable period for "sustained over time"? Of course, if a botch comes into play, then the -6 take effect immediately. I'll be honest, I have an arthritic hip. I sometimes have trouble moving at the beginning, but as I walk it actually becomes easier to do (counter to the flaw description), until I botch (misstep or trip) and then I'm at -6 the rest of the day. 
Never did much thought over it.
I wouldn't see the normal penalty coming into play in battle (too short and diverse), but the botch "-6" is a very real possibility.
I would see it apply if, for exemple, reaping fields with a scythe, or picking fruits from trees for hours, all tasks where the "lock" possibility is, OTOH, quite low.
What Fixer said. First off, I rarely see combat situations in any RP game that last more than 5 rounds. Second, I don't think of combat as a series of repetitive movements.
Now, if you said that you wanted to cast the exact same spell a dozen times (eg, a ReCo teleport, or a circle/ring-light), that would incurr the -3.
Hey, that's cool!
I will say combat can last a long time, though Bibracte they weren't trying to kill each other, which made it drag out over 10 rounds in that particular case.
Of course, can't wait to botch during combat... Although the dice in this game seem to hate Ra'am, no one else so far...