Given that most of Mythic Europe's land is in the hands of the nobility and church, I am quite curious about the agreements that your magi have reached with the local powers in order to settle down their covenant there. I suppose that in most cases they have taken advantage of a local peculiarity (a story) to be able to do that, but to know what exactly, it would be rather nice
IMS it has been a pure economic agreement: exploit a local wilderness area and paying an anual fee to the lord to do just that. The covenant is built along the lines of a timber industry, with a few hunters that the lord can contract for his hunts in the forest. He knows we are "explorers of the supernatural" and historians interested in Carnac, but being down to earth does not care much. After all, most of his nobles are not exemplar christians themselves.
IMS we have a nice arrnagement with the local abbot (who is the local ranking clergyman). Its the same guy from the intro adventure and we impressed him with our reasonableness and with our strict rules governing our conduct (if not with our piety). The Abbot leaves us alone and we leave him alone. Since we allowed a local group of friars to use our covenant as a base of operations (from where they head out to tend to the local villages) the covenants risn even higher in the abbots eyes.
Our relationship with the nobility isn't quite so sweet. Our saga is set in Merry Olde Englande and started in 1060. We got on great with the local Hlaford (kind of a Saxon baron) as our coveants eldest founding member was his older brother. Come 1066 and things obviously changed a little.
The new baron left us alone (on the condition that we left him alone) until he led his goons against us after we refused to disarm and knock down our fortifications. Needless to say his men were slaughtered and he was captured (poor luck on his part to lead the attack only seasons after our resident shapeshifter created a spell to turn himself into a dragon type creature).
After stripping him naked and sending him off home, we've kind of been a bit in his bad books. This has in turn led to problems with the king which we've only barely managed to handle (diplomatically of course).
So, local relations, clergy = good, nobility = bad (very).
When we settled in the ruins of an older covenant, we where soon attacked by the forces of the local hergraf(duke) - who hated magi after one member of the earlier covenant had seduced his wife. We drove the attack back (mostly due to their captain being struck by lightning... A feat we can't repeat (casting tablet so fragile that it broke when used)).
After that one of our magi visited the hergraf, and managed to talk said hergraf into allowing us to stay as a defensive buffer against the french, as well as wardens of the traderoute into France. We were also allowed to collect a small tax on the road, which he would receive a tenth of...
Offcourse, if any Quaesitores find out about our deal, we might be in considerable trouble - however, during the 13 years we have lived in here, only a single junior Quaesitores has been by - and she fell victim to the charms of our greek Bjornar... We've only had a single Redcap visit too, so there isn't any great chance of our reputation spreading in the order...
One of our Magi has it over the King of Scotland....
His Pater is related to the Queen...
He saw the King and his Paramour trysting...
The implied threat was enough to get a deed of land for the Covenants use...
We have provided him with taxes and some quality items...
Situation good.
The Church: We are far enough that the Churchmen weren't really interested in traveling into the mountains...
Until the closest village had their church burn down
Same Magi went down and created another....
Relation : wary but happy
Not all is rosey though...
The closest Covenant blew itself apart...apparently they had a problem with demon infestation...
We managed to get a chapter house and right to their Vis sources....
Our next closest neighbor (Covenant) was marched by the Tribunal...
We have a lot of eyes looking in our direction...Wary and Envious...
The Fairies in the area are more or less happy with us...
The local Mountain fairy has made many deals with us...Most have turned out well.
The local Water fairy stole an apprentice...the Master of said apprentice had to jump through hoops to get him back...
Both sides happy.
Our covenant is in the Lakes District of Cumbria, a bit southeast of Lake Windemere, established during the mid-1150's and now entering the 1160s...we formed following the unrest of the Civil War and set up in what was considered a haunted wood. The Unseelie Fae duke who lives there explained part of that conception. We've set up in an old roman fort, taking advantage of the remnant walls, construction, and infrastructure.
Ungulus is a nearby neighbor and while they're not pleased with having us so close, they've limited their machinations to political troubles rather than outright Wizards' War. However, Ungulus seems to have a fairly strong hold on the surrounding nobles, which has given our covenant a free pass-- no one has really come to bother us on the noble side of things. We did have a couple of encounters with Thomas a'Becket, pre-Archbishopric, and that seemed to put in a good word or two for us, enough so that we seem to be politely ignored. One of the nearby barons has turned out to be a vampire, and through an exchange of goods, men and services, we've established a bit of an alliance with him. However, now that we've been logging for the last 10 years, the area surrounding the covenant is cleared for a quarter mile and Fae Duke has politely stated that we should cease logging in proximity to the covenant.
Religiously, the area is in some turmoil. A large number of people 'disappeared' from small towns and forts during the Civil War, and it took a long time before many would return. For many years, all we had around were wandering friars because the priests in the larger towns like Carlisle and Ravenglass had no desire to come traipsing through the haunted wood.
After a nearly fatal raid by Scottish Reavers, we managed to convince a couple of Orkadian clans to relocate to our Covenant. This has increased our survivability but increased our footprint...Which makes me wonder how much longer we'll remain hidden in the woods...
IMS, Covenant is probably too deeply tied to the mundane politics of the age for its own good.
Elder magi of the covenant had strong relationship with a certain merchant family in Venice. The magi assisted Venetian/Byzantine forces in reclaiming certain Ionian islands from Norman Kingdom. In exchange for assistance, promises to aid against endemic piracy of area and tithe received a site on Zante. During 1185, what would become the Duchy of Cephalonia was seized by Margaritos. Covenant has a decade of chancy existance supported by Venetian influence and its own skill against Kingdom of Sicily. When the Hohenstauffen take the Sicilian throne, the Orsini get the Duchy. Then 1204 happens, the Duchy goes from a nominal fiefdom of the Holy See then to Venice.
Today, it provides certain valuable dyes (saffron the most valuable) and inks from its fields and processes to a Venetian merchant family. The Duke of Cephalonia covets the covenant but fears Venentian power and if he had free reign would try to seize the covenant lands (near Keri on Zante). Covenant does make payments to the Duke. Meanwhile certain of the Covenant's vis sources lie within the Despot of Eprius' lands and others within the Duchy of Morea.
So, the magi are active with a powerful Venetian merchant family and assist them in certain endevours (primarily "kill the pirates"). They routinely payoff the Duke of Cephalonia subtly threatening Venetian influence if the Duke becomes too much of a burden.
