Cosmology

[Arthur]

Background information about the tone of the saga.

[Arthur]

From the initial saga announcement thread:

@Arthur

Campaign Description: A low resource saga. A small groups of newly-Gauntleted magi looking to build a home.

The Order of Hermes is made up of magi suspicious of each other and jealous of their power. They keep their secrets close, for knowledge is power. So they don't share books easily. Good books will be rarely copied (deals are usually made to gain access to them instead). Sources of raw vis are slowly disappearing throughout Mythic Europe, so they are guarded jealously and smaller sources are more valuable than in the early history of the Order. This forces younger magi to seek out places where vis can be found, even when such locations are less than ideal, so that they can secure them.

In this context, young magi looking for freedom must strike out on their own, for established covenants require obedience and service in exchange for access to their libraries. Sometimes, these young magi join forces to establish a small covenant, pooling their resources.

Your magus is such a freedom-seeker. You just completed your apprenticeship and want to be free from the many rules of your pater’s covenant. Your pater (or mater) will try to help you, but for the most part you are on your own. Fortunately for you, a friendly redcap has found a site where you and a few others like you could set up a small covenant. It has only a single confirmed vis source, but he thinks there might be some other minor sources in the area but you’ll have to discover those. There is a price to be paid for this knowledge, in the form of one-fifth of the vis you harvest.

Starting Resources: This is a low resource saga. Forget about the build points system from Covenants. Forget about money.
A typical newly-Gauntleted magus might receive a book or two (about 30 bp total) and a few mundane servants. Another might get the equipment needed to set up a lab, plus a few lab texts. Another gets a small turb of grogs and a minor magical item.

Expect it to be a small covenant, with many challenges set before the magi. These will be discussed by the troupe before starting play, as will the precise location of the covenant and the details of the resources.

@Arthur

Although the covenant will start with relatively few mundane resources, with time and effort they should be able to do reasonably well. They will have to be subtle about it, to avoid drawing mundane suspicion (and Quaesitors will be aggressive about mundane interference in this saga), but they will be able to do it.

@Arthur

Saga is primarily about building the covenant, and the tribulation of the magi as they try to achieve their freedom in a calcified Order. (Just to be clear, the goal is not to break free from the Order, but establish a new covenant in an Order that just frown upon new covenants.) I don't have any story arcs planned at the moment, but I'm sure something will come up. Expect the first decade of the covenant's life to be mostly about building the covenant and exploring what little magical resources that can be found. And fighting to keep them, of course, as established covenants try to [strike]steal them[/strike] contest the covenant's right to them.

The rest will depend on the magi that the players bring to the table. Story flaws will be used, you can count on it, as will be their background stories.