I am willing to let new stories start up in 1242+. I have a thing planned for Summer, with the Regional Tribunals on either side of us and stuff. Other than that, we are clear.
Except for, as you said, there are stories abound awaiting resolution.
Bride of the Vavel Dragon and Escape from the City of Brass started five months ago, and are the second halves of two part stories. The Visitor is over a year now!
But these are drawing to a close soon enough, and there is always the Doppleganger option. Meaning that, should a character get killed or mangled in a story, yet paradoxically they are participants in other stories that take place at a latter chronological date though they were initiated &/or resolved before in real time the incident in real time played in the story that killed/mangled them, that character is an undetected doppleganger.
There has got to be a simpler way to say that...
Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey...stuff.
I think the ability to have stories go in parallel like that is one of the strengths of this saga. It allows for more stories without things slowing down to a crawl.
Credit for the multi-story style goes to Jonathan Link, who ran the Ruins of Bibracte Saga. Previously this saga had mainly single story threads and maybe some overlap. Novus Mane had some over lap, and a heavy focus on players running stories. Max set up the saga and mostly sat back playing his character.
All of the sagas I've run, both in the past and the one I'm developing now, use that system (whole-heartedly stolen from Mr Link). It allows all the magi's players to have something going on for their major characters at the same real-time and probably reduces the likelihood of them getting bored and leaving*. Of course, there's always going to churn in a pbp rpg, especially when it's just getting started, but I like to think this multi-semi-simultaneous-story thing helps.
- and, even though I know I shouldn't, I always take it personally when someone leaves my game, especially without saying anything. I take it as a failure on my part for something I should have done, or should have done better. That might just be my anxiety kicking in, though.
So, I touched in something in the Ancient History recruitment thread that I want to expand on here. Namely, what to do with Vibria after her current adventure.
Here's what I have in mind. After she soundly thrashes Abbie and defeats his ebil plot to rally the Dragons of Poutiness to take over the world, she returns home to Andorra with her fiancé Jaksic in tow. She gets married there, because to her that's home, the magi of Andorra are her family. Of course, Sigmundo should be there. She then takes a little time for the honeymoon, just traveling for a while (say, a month or so...just long enough to ruin the season for her), then she has checks to see how old she is one child, maybe two, before she does her Longevity Ritual (preferably on the covenant's dime, natch), and she would like to have one for Jaksic as well. Even though she knows his won't be as effective as hers, she doesn't want him to grow old and die before her eyes; she would much prefer that they grow older together, or not so much faster than the other.
And she will, upon her initial return to Andorra, petition for readmission to the Covenant. She's pretty sure she won't be reinstated as a Mistress, but she will accept the rank of Journeyman and work her way quickly up the ladder to Mistress again.
That's the plan, anyway. All, of course, dependent on the Council's vote and conditions (if any) on her readmission.
Pencil stuff in for Winter 1242, meaning she can reasonably be present in Spring 1242 for "Ancient History".
Should I go ahead and advance her to then, assuming full access to the library and a lab from, say, Winter 1236 on? (Looking at the map, it looks like her old tower, in the southeast corner of the map or the lower left of the picture, is still "empty". And I seem to recall that it wasn't badly damaged, so would she be able to move back in there and pick up where she left off?)
Wibbly Wobbly Timey Whimey Stuff.
Pencil in your return somewhere after 1237. Write a diddly-reno about your wedding. Allow others to comment.
Seasons before your return but not involving your travels will get filled in with something.
The season of your return is your wedding, and honeymoon maybe?
I move that, barring any dissent, Vibria be reinstated to her tower at Mistress status. Not sure about her officer status though.
Lucas may not have standing to comment on her Mistress status, but he has no objection to her being reinstated to the covenant.
Regarding advancing to 1242, I have it in the planner that Antoine is going monkey-hunting in Spring 1239 (if...uh... whoever it was that offered to run the adventure, which I've now lost 
... is still happy to). Otherwise, I'm all good - empty seasons I can read, practice, teach monkeys or craft in. And I'm sure the monkey-hunt can run in parallel.
Does anyone remember offering to run my monkey story?
Okay, I think I am completely caught up now. Sorry it took so long!
Strange side question for Prince of Boredom - is there anything to the choice of Solomon's original childhood name, Gareth Williams? Random?
With the promotion of a few Journeymen to Master, would the Pontifici be seeking another pledge/journeyman? I've still a hankering for a magus and it seems opportune.
I do not wish to think about this yet.
Aha! It was QPaC. Are you still up for running an adventure leading to the acquisition of a monkey?
This is something I've been curious about for a while. So I thought I'd post something to ask where people fell on the question.
Although we certainly have a chapel in the Arans castle (I can't imagine a castle being built without one), we don't have a resident priest at the castle. All we have is Fr. Gonzoles at the church in Arans. I was wondering, who among the magi (and companions, for that matter) makes the walk down to Arans every Sunday to go to church? I assume Solomon does. And I've always believed that Lucas and Cecelia do. Bashir, being a Muslim, obviously does not. What about the rest of the magi and companions?
And who in the Balearics does? Again, I'm assuming that Roberto tries to get to services at least as regularly as he can. Anyone else?
Looking over my list of characters, and (somewhat surprisingly) I don't see any of them being the "going to Mass every Sunday" type, especially if it's a trek. Hmm...actually, though, checking the maps on the wiki, it's only a few hundred yards to the village. Is that right?
If so, then Alejandro would go at least half the time. Most of the others would go (on average) about once or twice a month, as would Guiverna's staff in Malorca. Guiverna, being an Egyptian pagan, would find better ways to spend her Sunday morning.
Oh, and FWIW, Petrus and Andre would both go to church regularly.
When you all come from a monastery-covenant, you tend to be church-going folks. 
Frederika does; she's a practising Catholic. Tends to keep her hair covered, and has got a fairly nice pectoral cross that she likes to wear as well.
I don't actually know if Elena's a Christian or not, truthfully. I don't...think she would be? Beyond being too young to choose entirely for herself, she grew up in Harco. So even if she's religious to a degree (and she probably is), I'm not sure she'd be a follower of an organised religion.