Thanks Cuchulainshound. That is very useful.
Thanks, tho' respect to gaapprime for his refinement- creating a village largely of craftsmen who then are ready-made for later usurpation to "other tasks." Altho' a bit slower than some methods, the elegant density of skill might be a consideration. And advertising for such would not be an obstacle either, neither re mundane nor Hermetic law.
With a little creativity, they'll never be missed...
On the option of Traded as a Commodity , is there an indentured servitude provision related to debt?
(not to be confused with any kind of slavery)
You could go to a city and buy peoples debts from a money lender.
(assuming this is legal)
They could then be given the option of working off their debt for the Covenant.
Obviously you can't do this if a Noble has debts , but you may be able to get him to loan you some excess peasantage.
(if you pay his/her debt first , you may get Patronage which could be far more useful)
Of course, there is always the 'forest of people' option. Not real peasants, but somehow less icky than a zombie workforce.
Seen it done, and should work in 5th:
- grow lots of trees fast, or find a forest with no spirits/fae/etc. protecting it.
- Awaken the trees to intelligence for a usefly long duration
- Use a Herbam version of Beast Remade ... preferably leaving the trees with completely human bodies instead of weird hybrid ones (no Ents allowed ... this is an 'all human' village)
- Rego them to do what you want, as they have intelligence and will be able to follow direction as well as any unskilled worker
- Give them clothes, tools, whatever they need
- Treat them nice (optional but recommended)
- Mind your durations, repeat as nescessary
When the moon cycle is almost up make sure they haven't wandered off to town or something so you can recast everything. I saw that happen too ... with a few of the tree-men-gone-a-drinking winding up as huge uprooted trees in a smashed tavern.
A Magus with the right herbam specilty could probably pull this one off fairly quick out of guantlet as none of the spells need to be very high if one sticks to moon duration. I suppose if one wanted to make 'foremen' who pick up skills/get trained/etc. over time one could do it with permanent spells, or there is the 'intelligent' magic item jewlery option for giving them directions / skills.
Be great if they all became regular church goers with no souls and all.
A) ALL the peasants are likely to be freaked out.
B) We'd have to supervise all these 8-year old brained farmers all the time to make sure they don't screw up.
C) It'd really creep me out. ;D
Annnd if the Church doesn't support them, they can't do jack. They know how helpless they'd be against magic if it weren't for the Big Guy looking out for them. Defying a Church order would be impossible.
I've been planning on doing this with my Herbam mage once he retires. Of course, I moved on to thinking about using some sort of break through to just control the native dryads of regular trees, not unlike the Merenita animus ability or whatever.
True, but doable and certainly... well, out of the ordinary.
I disagree. First of all a lot of the lords are in fact of the church. Secondly the order of things is very important to the church as it is instituted from above. Thirdly even if he has no church backing a noble lord can still make a lot of trouble - by himself or through his liege - and whatever means the covenant chooses to solve it with might very well call the attention of the Quaesitors!
A flood perhaps or something similarily slow so that only the old, the infirm and the buildings are "weeded out" perhaps?
... this was ONE aproach my players used.
Actually , something that would attract peasants is a Pension Plan.
Not a modern one of course ,
but if there was an alternative to starving and freezing when you were too old to work.
Monasteries/Convents did this sort of thing for wealthier clients who left land or goods to the Church.
A modest investment in "Charitable Works" would pay long term rewards in increasing loyalty factor.
We used a combination of all the above for our new covenant:
We went to Novgorod and bought quite a few slaves. We made sure that most of them were skilled hunters before buying them down. It is easy to buy them with a single use of CrTe silver, since you are not using more vis for quite some time. We used this money, but a loan from an other covenant should be easy to secure.
Then back to Brittany, near Carnac. We had already negotiated with a lord the right to exploit a wildland area for a fixed fee each year. We have a number of woodcutters and hunters to do so. They are learning britonnic (or whatever peasants yell to each other down in brittany) slowly, and giving us a secure source of revenue and stories.
Of course the management issues are one of the least important things for us when it comes to ArM, but it seems to be plausible enough to work. This also puts our companions more in the light: they are the ones able to speak to both the local population and the grogs, so they are important.
Best,
Xavi
Breton.
Remember that parts of the Order have bad experience with CrTe silver - to a degree that it is deemed illegal by the Peripheral Code.
Novgorod: somethiong like 5 covenants. Buy them in the west of Kiev, in cuman territory. Nobody is likely tio come asking for them. And if they do, there you go with a story seed Who said breaking the law is something bad? it generates stories! 
Cheers,
Xavi
Certainly could not agree more!
To my knowledge the ban CrTe silver is only verified to be in effect in Stonehenge - but if you see an interesting story on the horizon it might be addressed by the Novgorod or Normandy...
IIRC there is a similar provision in the rhine tribunal as well as per GotF. Was the stonehenge statement reprinted in HoH:TL? If not, it is not canon anymore.
Cheers,
Xavi
Provide them with Expensive equipment
Have them deal exclusively with Gentle Gift magi when possible
Treat them well
Pay them more than they would make outside the covenant
Provide a pension to old/retired grogs
Over-rated.
Better, cast a Group CrMe spell to make them think this is all going on! 8)
You did see the optional loyalty rules in covenants didn't you? Yes, more story seeds are good I suppose.
Offer lower taxes. It's not like you NEED the tax income as such, magi can pretty much source money in millions of ways.
If Magi need more common folk and they can wait a short while (for Magi) then nothing is simpler: drastically reduce mother & child mortality.
- Whip up some cheap CrCo lesser enchanted items. An Effect Expiry (AM5p99) of seven years might be prudent. 2) Hand ‘em out to local clergy on terms that guarantee the items get lots of use. (be sure to tell ‘em about the seven years up front) 3) Make sure the political & physical space is ready for the ‘population bubble’ when it arrives.
This is obviously ‘interfering with mundanes’ but just as obviously it falls under the ‘no harm, no foul’ exception. The Magi get the workers they need and the Holy Church gets most of the credit. Might the Church get huffy when the ‘relics’ stop working? (assuming they do... God works mysteriously, etc) Sure. Sounds like another nice ‘Negotiation for a Trade of Favors’ story.