Trying to compare the Redcap network with irl Social Network platforms.
Can you anonymously send messages? ie Spurious of Tytalus in the Normandy Tribunal sends a disquieting message to a mage in the Levant, but can he convince the Redcap network to not reveal his identity as sender? How about impersonate a mage?
Can you broadcast messages to everyone? eg offer to any and every mage in the Tribunal a reward for a wayward apprentice? Limit the broadcast so certain groups don't get it?
Trol magi? Spam magi? Flood the network with fake news?
Addenda: Routing tables - every mage has a unique identifier code so that the sender doesn't need to know where the sendee is located, let alone the route the message will take. the routing table is updated as magi move around.
Not sure about anonymous messages, but you can absolutely send a message to every other covenant as some sort of public notice. IIRC Covenants talks about that being one way tenders for books (or items?) are advertised.
If Spurious of Tytalus can convince a neutral third party (perhaps some random passerby, by coin or rego) to deliver an envelope to the local Mercere House, he might keep his anonymity. The envelope contains a bit of silver or vis for the Redcap’s trouble, and instructions to deliver the smaller enclosed envelope to the Levantine mage. Passerbyum of Wurtzburg apologizes, but it was very dark, and the man* who gave him the envelope wore a low hood and whispered. It’s probably a lot of trouble and with dubious guarantee of success, doubly so little guarantee of expediency, but perhaps Spurious knows that the local Mercere house has a reputation for delivery no matter what.
*“or woman, I suppose, or…nonbinary? Passerbyum is cool.”, Passerbyum mutters.
To limit that broadcast, you might want to work through gilds and societies. Eg, you spread a message to ONLY the Oak Gild or ONLY the Cult of Mercury. If you’re familiar enough to know who-knows-what of these groups, you could probably tell one group, knowing they’ll do everything the can to spread it without letting the Ash Gild find out. (Idk if these are hostile Gilds, pretend I said the right one.)
Spreading fake news seems easiest, since it can be relatively hard to fact-check things. If it’s about another person, gossip spreads fast and can be very hard to fact check, so if you craft the right sort of lie (plausible, juicy enough to be salacious but not so criminal that it people are motivated to Do Something About It) and send that in two opposite directions, everyone in the Tribunal would “know” it within a few seasons. There’s also rules in TME for polemics and public opinion, which could probably apply here, if you want to get granular.
To get a message to everyone in the Tribunal would probably be difficult, though a wayward apprentice probably could only get so far. Assuming sufficient means, Truantius could probably just pay a few horse-grogs to run messages to nearby Covenants, and perhaps to contacts in the local towns and monasteries - it seems more likely that he knows where the adjacent Covenants are than his apprentice could find them (though it might depend on his reputation whether this would guarantee the apprentice’s safe return or lead to a ransom situation, or the apprentice being sheltered. Maybe the apprentice ran away for a good reason.) I also think if I was an apprentice running away, I’d be less likely to shelter with another mage, likely to rat on me, than I would with the friendly blacksmith or wacky minstrel.
This is assuming mages know where other local Covenants are? I guess I would assume they do, but I could be wrong. There’s probably a FEW that put in the effort to stay hidden, but I assume that mages wizened enough to have apprentices know at least how to get to the nearest few Covenants. Is there anything suggesting non-Redcaps are discouraged from sending messages? Do Redcaps get territorial about that?
Yes; some magi will hand Redcaps letters directly, others will just deposit in the covenant mail chest. In any case, the letter is addressed to the mage, but there’s no custom of a return address on the outside (which may just be a wrapper or the other side of the sheet). If the sender does not sign, it’s anonymous.
Broadcast messages: Yes, a Redcap’s duties include general announcements to all covenants/magi. A Redcap may well make a public address to a covenant council, per request. I don’t think the covenant is obligated to gather, and the Redcap cannot require a gathering, but generally most of them will meet at the request of the Redcap for the general news. If you don’t show up, no foul, but you had your chance to hear the news. Often, this will be at supper as a formal or at least official event. This is not in the form of a letter, though. It’s public address. You might ask that your news not be announced at a covenant, but whether it is seems a matter of personal professional ethics.
A mage might send any sort of message, including spam and fake news, but I don’t think the Redcaps will generally further information they think is false.
Redcaps serve a route of covenants and dwellings. Often mail is left at a covenant, unless the message is to be personally delivered (for a fee). Redcaps do deliver to lone magi, as long as the dwelling is registered for a route. A mage might send a letter to a given mage, no known address, but there’s no guarantee of delivery.
Private messages are sent IOS, often by grog (when they know how to get to the other covenant). House Tremere has its own messenger system, and I don’t think the Redcaps care except that Tremere is apparently trying to replace the Redcap network in Transylvania.