You could use Cradle and the Crescent but the game would not get beyond 1259.
Did I say papyrus? I feel like an idiot. I don't know much about old paper (the entirety of my knowledge of old paper comes from reading the Libraries chapter of Covenants. Once.) so I was confusing papyrus with parchment. Yeah, I was wondering if an oasis would support a whole lot of imported grasses since sand isn't very nutrient-rich. For the grazing animals, y'know?
EDIT: Oh, and Karure... Karuren... Karureren... Person with name that I can't copy and paste because this is an edit! Yes, we have space for a Verditius.
No need for imported grasses. When there's a good amount of fresh water, sand has a way of becoming soil. An oasis would never become "amber waves of grain" but the ones I've seen are surprisingly green. (And with Rego and other magics, overboard is easy enough, with cascades of water that freeze into elaborate ice sculptures, or whatever.)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oasis#medi ... tRiver.jpg (been there)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_Sprin ... ife_Refuge
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azraq_Wetland_Reserve
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siwa_Oasis ... e_Siwa.jpg
And more.
Oh, and this: ask-aladdin.com/Egyptian_Oas ... _Oasis.htm huge!
Thanks winter ill start up a sheet on the mock up for the character. Ka Re Ru Ren, simply Kar or Ren are easy nicknames.
I'm not sure there'll necessarily be enough Church influence to make the Levant a good choice for the premise. The Alps would work - as would Thebes: which has recently gone through a huge shift in power - religiously and temporally - which could make things problematic for even a long established covenant.
Character-wise, I think I've definitely settled on a strong Terram focus. Though I have to say, the spell examples for Terram are a bit of a mess. Just a touch all over the place and a little bit weird/vague compared to the other forms. May need to adjudicate some effects when we get into the nitty gritty.
Though there are Crusaders in the area, and every now and then a crusade (1218, 1249 irl.)
im pretty good for levant, alps, hell id be interested in novograd...rather prefer to avoid thebes.
I'm (quite aware this argument is euro-centric, but most of your players will be from a western background, rather than posting from an IS camp in some oriental desert or from the ruins of Gaza.
I dislike the Levant because I know too little about it (unlike Thebes, modern Switzerland, France, Ireland, the UK, Italy).
Imagining life in the Middle Ages is not easy.
Imagining life in the Middle Ages with a gender twist is challenging.
Imagining life in the Middle Ages with a gender twist in a strange environment will rob us of all fixpoints in the setting.
The game would be in danger of becoming a sad collection of stereotypes.
I tend in to agree with Pralix, but am game with all proposed alternatives.
So what are the top picks if we kick out the levant for tribunals?
I feel like Thebes tribunal I proposed received some opposition, same for levant. I'm not sure cradle and crescent is really appropriate, that would leave Hibernia and Greater Alps, this last seems to receive the most support.
The last saga I played was in the Greater Alps so I would slightly prefer something else but this is indeed a good fit too.
im quite good with hibernia, or the greater alps. On some greater thought I would be interested in being out in the Iberian Tribunal, as ive not gotten a chance to play out there.
I recently did Thebes and would rather like to avoid it personally.
Novograd was mentioned earlier - which would certainly fit the themes of an icy, pagan covenant in a land slowly giving way to Christianity. The Mongols may be a bit of a bugger there though. Of the other choices, my favorite is the Alps for geographically thematic reasons.
I'm assuming that, because of the ostentatious of the Covenant, that they either want fewer muggles about ( Alps, Novograd, Loch Leglean) or looser rules (Hibernia, Leglean). I can do any of them. Hibernia brings a lot of political baggage( both mundane and Hermetic). If it is important to have satyrs then we might want to stick closer to Greece or any place that was heavily influenced by Rome. Then you are looking at Thebes, Alps, Rhine, Providence or Rome.
But if you are looking more High Fantasy it could be anywhere.
Working on a Merinita follower of Pendule. Will we be able to get the first mystery( for those of us in Mystery Houses) as starting magi or will that be part of the story.
Given greece/thebes very communal nature in the method of how its run...I imagine a very classist covenant would rack up shards and probbly get one person ostracised every tribunal for being kinda shitty. It would make it a bit rough for a covenant with our values.
Also not sure I want to deal with all of good ol hibernias poli baggage either.
Jebrick we get the first outer mystery like bonisagii get pussiant MT or intruige. (Also yay for pendule)
Greater alps looks more and more appealing. I am curious though who would be our adversaries in alps though. Let's do this, let's throw out a top 3, and one tribunal we would absolutely like to avoid.
- Iberia (moors, viziers)
- Greater alps (enemy shrug)
- Novograd (mongols, "order" of odin)
Avoid- thebes
What were the odds 
? I was hesitating between 2 concepts, one being the exact same thing, I guess you just resolved the issue. (So yay for Pendule too)
So I'm working on a spirit centered mage, probably a Titanoi, the background concept is almost ready the rest depends on Tribunal etc. For the Character sheet, that's a different story...
Lets see...
- Greater Alps
- Novograd
- Thebes
Avoid: ...mm, I don't really have a particular avoid. Though Hibernia doesn't feel right for the premise.
By the way, not all the Alps Tribunal is high mountains. North-western Switzerland (then: part Burgundy, part "Holy Roman Empire"/Swabia) and Bavaria are mostly rivers, hills and lakes.