Covenant Discussion

[Arthur]

@Jonathan.Link

Well, you can always go deep into the back story of the magus. There are grogs...

As far as the force behind or supporting the covenant? I don't have a huge opinion except I want them to be independent of the various participants.
Where is everyone from (apprentice covenant)? I haven't decided for mine...

I mentionned it because at one point you wrote about having a character concept that would tie the others together (a kind of merchant). I checked back in the Character creation dicsussion thread to refresh my memory and Praxiteles is an artist magus with the Gentle Gift.

For some reason I thought we had a merchant-type magus more interested in living in Koblenz proper, but it seems I am misremembering. No matter. Although someone interested in playing a companion on those lines would certainly have something to work with there.

So this comes back to the following questions:

1. Who found out about this site? It may have been one of the magi's pater or mater, a Mercere, or through a contact. Any of the young magi could probably have been involved, which would reduce outside influence. If any of you want their magus involved in it, let me know. Otherwise I can probably work out something with mine (by describing a story about it).
2. Who initiated the search for other magi to found a covenant there? I figure the discussion between the young magi would have been initiated at the last Tribunal meeting, which based on my magus' advancement log was 4 years before saga start (I can switch things around if we want to establish a different timeline). Although my magus can help somewhat in this aspect (his pater has a lot of connections), one of the others may be better suited to the role. Any taker?
3. Who investigated the site and discovered the details about the statues of Mercury and Rosmerta? My magus is not suited for this role, because InVi is not his strong suit. If none of the others want their magus involved in it, we can say it was an hired peregrinator. Any taker?
4. Who supervised the restoration of the main site? Again, my magus is not the best suited to the role. A magus closer to mundanes would be best, although we can always delegate the more mundane parts of this to a companion (the steward?). Anyone want his magus involved?

@Archimedes

If we are in the Rhine Tribunal, don't we need the approval of the other covenants to found a new one? And shouldn't we be getting gifts in exchange for other favors? I don't mind handwaving this away, just curious.

Aedituus is from a covenant in the Stonehenge Tribunal, but has spent most of his post-gauntlet life as a peregrinator in the Rhine after the Interdict in England. (Are we starting in 1220?)

Indeed, the Rhine rules about new covenants has to be taken into account. If we want to handwave some of all of it, Petronius' pater is a good way to do it since he has lots of political connections. We may take a covenant Hook for favors owed, or not. We can also detail parts of it as pre-game narrative stories. There's plenty of potential for as many of these as we want to work into our magi's backstory. If we go with GotF, there are many covenants that need to be convinced. Here's a summary list of the covenants, with their foundation and destruction dates, along with what might convince them to approve of us:

• [b]Durenmar /b: Vis bribe, Bonisagus influence
• [b]Crintera /b: Support for a vote to protect the island against mundanes
• [b]Irencillia /b: The planting of a faerie tree in our forest, something completely unrelated
• [b]Fengheld /b: Just about anything
• [b]Dankmar /b: May have had to help them obtain something (to be used for mischief), dark faerie influence, some service
• [b]Roznov /b: Probably don't care
• [b]Treverorum /b: If still exist, something about mundane interactions
• [b]Rheinstein /b: This would be a tough one, since they are so close to Koblenz (within 20 miles upstream). It would be easier if we set the date after its destruction, or establish that the covenant never existed. They may have been pressured into approving us. They may have asked for a fortune in vis, which was given to us by another rival covenant to spite them. Anyway, if they still exist they will have a big impact on us.
• [b]Oculus Speptentrionalis /b: Trade agreement, or simply don't care
• [b]Triamore /b: Political reasons, sponsoring of the arts
• [b]Waddenzee/Terschelling /b: Support against Order of Odin (before 1200), probably don't care afterwards

The date of the saga has of course an influence on this. I would personnally prefer a date before current canon, between 1180 and 1205 for instance. If we want to avoid the Rheinstein problem, it would make sense to go for something after 1200. So maybe to ruling of 1200 A.D. (when Rheinstein was announced destroyed) forbidding the establishment of new covenants in the Rhine Gorge region never occured. Or we could have been established before Rheinstein. Or Rheinstein simply never existed in this saga.

My vote would be 1184 A.D., with no Rheinstein in this saga. This is after Treverorum has been destroyed, so we won<t have conflicts with them either.