Salus sodales!
This is my first post on this forum and I’m glad to become a part of the community. Forgive me if it's a little long 
My group used to play Ars Magica back in the 90s, when we had a couple of campaigns that went on for a few years, using 3rd and 4th edition. Then we moved on to other RPGs and left AM in a drawer. But it always stayed in our hearts, and now I got a sudden urge to come back to it. I was delighted to see all the great manuals that came out and to discover this active and enthusiastic forum. I took a lot of good ideas from here, while lurking, and I am grateful for that. I want to credit Heaven’s Thunder Hammer and the people that replied to his posts about a campaign set in late VIII century for some of my saga's features.
Thus, what follows is the setting for a new campaign that I plan to begin soon. I post it here not only for the joy of sharing, but also because I would enjoy more inputs and ideas. So every comment is more than welcome.
[center]DOMUS PARVA[/center]
The saga is set to begin in 790 A.D, a few decades after the birth of the Order of Hermes. All the founders but Criamon are still alive and the hermetic lineages aren't beyond the third generation. I moved the First Tribunal ten years earlier (757) to be able to have third generation magi by 790 A.D, a year I liked for historic reasons. Here is what is the scenario like in those days:
First of all, I think the origin of the Order as we know it is an edulcorated tale, easy to teach and good for setting a common tradition which serves as a source for inspiration. But things must have been a lot rougher back then in the 700s. The founders were powerful wizards, used to centuries of enmities and distrust. This is stressed enough in the Order's lore to explain the importance of Parma Magica in allowing the magi to be in the same place without instantly blast one another. But the Parma Magica alone couldn't be the magic trick that made them all work together, share knowledge and support each other. There must have been more secrets kept secret, wrestling for power, backstabbing and uncertainty. The Order could have well failed because of internal and external struggles, and in my saga that’s certainly a possible outcome.
Another major difference from official history is that the magic of the Order wasn't so polished from the start. There were big holes in Bonissagus' Magic Theory and in its understanding, so much so that many magi still relied more on their old ways. Most magi, including the founders and the “persuaded", had been raised in non-hermetic cultures, and had had a hard time switching to the new paradigm. Only after several generations of hermetic teaching the magic of Bonissagus would be perceived as THE magic.
Finally, the world was different back then. With the fall of the Roman Empire and the great migrations of pagan tribes, christianity had suffered and urbanization had dwindled. Thanks to Charlemagne the Church is on its way back to power, but in 790 it isn't still ubiquitous, it hasn’t just one voice and it lacks strenght. As a consequence the Dominion (and the infernal) is less extended, while faery and magic auras are larger and much more common. Magic users are all around the place, from the tiniest village to the court of nobles. Even Charlemagne has Maugis the wizard as one of his paladins!
Given these premises, what are the differences between this setting and a conventional campaign set in 1220?
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Bonissagus’ Magic Theory wasn’t built in a day, and neither in thirty years. It’s been a work in progress that required centuries of development to get to the point where it usually is by 1220. Back in 790 it has a lot of deficiencies, since many breakthroughs are yet to come (see below for a partial list).
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It took almost thirty years for Trianoma to gather the founders and for Bonissagus to teach them the basics of his Magic Theory. They began in 740 and ended well after the First Tribunal. Some of the founders were trained first and had more time afterwards to expand their Houses, some were late comers and began growing later. At the end of their “apprenticeship”, most founders were still much stronger using their old magic than Bonissagus’ tricks.
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Most founders shared with Bonissagus just a fraction of their knowledge, while keeping most of it for themselves and their followers. Each House has its secret set of knowledges which I took from Houses of Hermes, The Mysteries, Ancient Magic, Rival Magic and other manuals. Some of this stuff is non-hermetic, and some is a hermetic adaptation of non-hermetic magic. This is what constitutes the core of each House’s mysteries and each House guards it jealously, teaching it to its member in due time. Someday some of this knowledge will converge into the Magic Theory and some will be forgotten. But not yet.
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In 790 A.D. the Order is small. Since 757, the few founders rose to about a hundred magi (one third Diedne) through teaching and assimilation. These magi live in a few underpopulated covenants, which are often little more than crumbling buildings, dark caverns or villages in the woods (with the notable exception of Durenmar). If we exclude Diedne, the Houses count an average of six magi each, living in one or two covenants. All covenants are inhabited only by magi of a single House.
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We are not even close to the homogeneity of 1220’s generalist magi. In 790 almost each magus is one of its kind. There are the founders, skilled in old and new magic, the new breed of hermetic filii, and a mixed bag of wizard-priests, summoners, shapechangers and witches which joined the Order but barely learnt the basics of Magic Theory. Each one has a different worldview, personality and skill set. Each one demands to be different.
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Having said that, it’s clear that the Order is structured more around personal relationships than politics. The founders’ leadership is still the main glue that prevents all the pieces from being hurled away by the centrifugal force. But the relationships between founders are often shaky, and new personalities grow fast and want their space.
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The apprenticeship is a matter of trial and error. The teachers are either the founders, with their mix of hermetic and non-hermetic notions, or young magi, pushed by the need to expand the House to take an apprentice a few years after their own gauntlet. The process of opening the Gift is faulty, and so the gentle Gift is extremely rare (that’s for making companions more useful). There’s no standard method of teaching, just a few crappy books around, and often a lack of will to teach well (because of selfishness or distrust). Thus, failed apprenticeships are more common, and most young magi pass the Gauntlet with an incomplete training.
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The Magic Theory is not the only thing that still needs maturing. The Code of Hermes lacks some of its parts, and the Peripheral Code is just a very small collection of laws that no one knows. These codes will be shaped by needs and crisis, but they are just a stub in 790. There have been just two Tribunals so far, and the role of quesitor is yet to come. Guernicus and his few filii are working hard towards this goal, but at the moment there’s no official structure that can investigate a violation, pass a sentence and enforce the punishment. Respect of the spirit of the Code is mostly entrusted to personal goodwill and wizards’ wars.
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Given the tolerance of benign magic by the Church and the Rulers, interference with the affairs of the mundane is not taboo within the Order. Things will probably change, in time, but so far a magus could even legally be a court wizard (it will been forbidden in 865). Mundanes, though, receive a magic resistance from being inside the Dominion (5x aura). And bishops, missionaries and saints are closer to God than usual.
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This saga is set in Saxony, a borderland between Charlemagne’s holy empire, the heathen nation that live in northern Germany and Scandinavia, and the slavs that dwell east of the Elba river. Here the faery and magic auras are very strong and very big, and a major source of tales and adventures. The clash between Jehovah and Odin’s breed will be a prominent focus of the campaign, and the fact that Odin is like another name for Hermes won’t be overlooked.
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[EDIT AUG 31] Mythic Europe is much richer in faery and magic auras, and thus also in vis and non-hermetic magic-users. The relationships with these people will be very important to the campaign. Many of them will be loners, of course, but others will have some sort of organization (the “order of Odin”, for instance), and time will tell if they’ll be dangerous foes or useful allies. Or dangerous allies and useful foes. Some of them may have also stolen the secret of Parma Magica.
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The PCs’ covenant is an idea of Trianoma. She is worried that the Houses keep being secretive and non-collaborative. If the Order won’t find a way to merge all its different cultures, it won’t last for long. So, the maga arranges a visit to each of the founders and asks them to participate in founding a new covenant with magi from different Houses, aimed to foster friendship and unity. The name of this covenant will be Domus Parva, as opposed to the current covenants which are almost only Domus Magnae. Some of the founders are just not interested, but Trianoma manages to persuade a few. And so, a handful of young magi are gathered at Durenmar and instructed about the value of this new project. They are mostly a bunch of misfits, though: there’s the trouble-maker, the slow learner, the boy that his pater doesn’t trust, the non-collaborative ex hedge wizard, the natural son of a founder at odds with his father, and of course the spy. Oh well, all of them are actually spies of their Houses. All of them are intended to be puppets by their Houses, sent there to discover secrets and reveal none. Will they fulfill Trianoma’s dream and be the seeds of a better Order of Hermes, or will they be the trigger of hostilities between Houses that will endanger the whole organization? We’ll soon find out.
ABOUT MAGIC
As I said before, the Magic Theory is still incomplete. Below there’s a list of things that makes it so, but I would like to expand it, and I would very gladly welcome some ideas from you:
Several spell guidelines are missing in 790:
- Ignem doesn’t include light (Elaine of Flambeau 818), heat or cold. Just fire.
- Auram doesn’t include electricity and lightnings.
- MuCo spells can’t be interrupted by simply concentrating (Mutantes of Bonissagus 912)
- Mentem has the Limit of Soul, and can’t affect thoughts and intelligence. It can affect intelligent spirits, memories and emotions.
- Vim can only be used on active magic or creature and accident of the magic realm. It can’t be used on creatures and accidents of the other three realms (Conciatta 930). ReVi and MuVi spells can’t be invented, at the moment. The only MuVi spell is Wizards' Communion, which is a Cult of Mercury heritage ritual.
The Certamen is yet to come (Tremere 817)
The Aegis of the Earth hasn’t been invented (Notatus of Bonissagus 836)
The Twilight is still a complete mystery.
The Parma Magica can’t be temporarily suppressed (not sure about this).
[EDIT AUG 31] Penetration is being studied by Flambeau, but is not common knowledge yet.
[EDIT AUG 31] Longevity potions don't hold back the apparent ageing.
I have also invented a new minor hermetic Flaw which should be taken at least once by every PC:
Flawed Arts: your apprenticeship was incomplete and you need more study in order to learn to use some of the arts efficiently. Choose two techniques, or four forms, or one technique and two forms. All totals including these arts are halved as per Deficient Technique or Deficient Form. You can remove these limitations by being schooled by a Bonissagus with a Magic Theory value of at least 5. It takes two seasons of teaching to fix a technique, and one season to fix a form. Of course, the Bonissagus will want something in return.
ABOUT THE ROLE OF QUESITOR
(added september 7)
This is my take on the role, which differs from canon, because it develops slowly.
At the beginning the Order of Hermes had no quesitor role. The majority of the founders didn’t want some stranger to come looking into their affairs. The community was still small enough that controversy could be managed personally on a case-by-case basis. But the Order grew quickly and things got complicated just as fast. Soon the lack of a legal system and the vagueness of the Code lead the magi to think that wizards’ war was the easiest and quicker mean to settle a quarrel. By 790, it is quite common that when there is an issue, the stronger magus calls for a wizards’ war against the weaker one, forcing him to surrender or fight. This brings to a sort of law of the jungle.
The situation has become worrisome for everybody involved, with too much violence and intimidation, both internal and external to the Houses. The issue is therefore brought to the 799 Tribunal, which rules that every House names at least one quesitor inside its ranks, and puts him in charge to be a mediator between disputants, basing his judgement on facts and the Code. Each quesitor will work alone should the quarrel be inside his own House or in collaboration with the quesitor of another House when needs be. The only privilege of a quesitor is that none of the parts involved can declare a war on him, but beside this, he has no special power and he is therefore more a mediator than a investigator or judge. Nontheless, his actions and decisions are usually backed by the Primi and the community, because a peaceful resolution is often better than a war which could lead to collateral damages and long lasting feuds with uncertain outcome.
At first the magi of a House take turns in taking this role, but soon enough some of them emerge as the best choices and become permanent quesitores. They mostly develop a respect for each other, and the ones from House Guernicus earn special recognition for their wisdom and understanding of the Code. More and more their help is requested to help solve the most delicate situations, even outside their own House. Finally, the Order’s major crisis greatly contribute in defining House Guernicus as the House of the quesitores. They also push the Order towards granting more and more authority and power to the role, up to the point where it is in 1220.
ABOUT HOUSE DAVANALLUS
(added september 19)
Damhan-Allaidh is one of the founder and he is Primus of House Davanallus, which populates the British Isles and especially Caledonia (Scotland). It is a very loose House, were the members are often just hegde wizards belonging to the gruagachan or rune wizards tradition. Davanallus doesn't care about the rest of the Order and refuses the role of leader of his own House. See page 2 of the replies for the complete story.
And that’s it for now. If there’s some interest I will post more about this stuff, such as details about the historical setting, stories of the founders, characters and long term storylines.
Hope you liked it. Let me know!
