I must say Majorca is far more appealing... 
Being a remote island it may help us with keeping our Tribunal-free status, and give us more leverage if Tribunals start putting the pressure on to join them, we could just say "well, we COULD just start our OWN..."
This is more or less exactly what I was thinking. 
Also, I really wouldn't want to hole up in the salt mines. Setting aside the fact that it's so close it could cause adventure overlap, my Jerbiton needs civilization and as little exercise as possible. Lounging on the beach with wine and a roasted haunch is much more his speed. If there are dancing girls, so much the better.
Yeah, I'm about a third of the way in and I'm already noticing that everything bad that's happened since Carthage fell is because of demons.
Yes.
Though my Jerbiton is female and she prefers dancing boys, please.
Third Edition was like that in general. It was in vogue for gaming at the time, and White Wolf wanted to create a Segway into the old World of Darkness games (the backstory for the old Vampire & Mage games etcetera was based on Ars Magica).
Also, most of the infernal references in that book were added by the editor afterward (note the heavy use of parentheses). The best parts are the Flambeau story, Barcelona, and Duresca. The Shadow Wars can be cool if taken with a grain of salt.
And they may come back, especially callen. Shit happens, I'm the first to know 
Question is, why would we set up a chapter house there? What's the interest to Andorra? As this is a (As far as we can tell) known location, there's not so much one can throw in.
Ok, I got it.
For you all, journeymen who wanna join the high and mighty covenant of andorra, hereâs the deal : Youâre gonna found and maintain a chapterhouse in majorca. Your goal will be to set up a sizeable source of income and⊠We see, we Masters are quite tired, and in dire need of a nice resting place. So we count on you to build up and maintain something will all the accomodations suitable for our status. If you do well, one day, youâll be allowed to join the covenant. Deal?
But yes, be it mundane, hermetic or magical, itâs quite easy to come up with storylines there.
Good news!
Arachné knows Incantation of Summoning the Dead. The problem being Penetration, though, since she beings at -7 + die roll.
But she has Penetration 4, and the tablet, being an AC, can help.
She can likewise spend one season to Master her spell for penetration, bringing it to -6 + die + 6*Penetration multiplier, for something roughly 24-30. Hopefully, that'll be enough.
And she learns "the face in the mirror" in 1231, which allows her to bind a ghost in one 
Once she has it, she won't be secret about these at all, since her plans involve summoning and binding a great number of ghosts in service to Andorra.
BTW, the Brass Bottles? My mercurian summoner can almost do these 
For about... 2 pawns of vis, she can create an item that'll control a spirit or elemental forever. The only problem is "how to hide them when you want to". So she'd be very interested in that magic, if only to perfect hers.
Anyway.
Marko, on the Wiki, I've created a Valdarius page. If you have more bakcground info...
I've put up info on the Spirit Binders, as well as what I know about the Weapon Masters.
Now, 2 questions:
Architects is not a lineage, just the hobby of one magus (Daern). The Pillar of Hiram is from the original Mysteries in 4th edition. They are based on the Masons.
For the Valdarian lineage, what we are sorely lacking is Lab Texts for common items (or perhaps also spells that make good item enchantments). And Initiation scripts.
Oooooh... Shiny!
(Note, I think that a valdarian lineage of architects is a great thing, so that's too bad 
)
Well then, so let it be. It could be a lost branch, one that is barely known, one that knows secrets about our castle...
Hihihi! 
Having fun with the Valdarians so far, although I'll shamelessly admit I used some of the ideas I had for Arachné with Ivarr's charged items.
So, if we're thinking Mallorca...I have this Great White Shark Bjornaer idea that's been floating around in my head all day...
This is starting to sound like a spin off saga, based on nothing to do with the covenant whatsoever other than that we have unused character ideas based on using this sagas CharGen rules
Which is fine by me. But we will have to come up with some sort of metaplot to bind things together. And I am not good with metaplots. So I am open to suggestions.
I'm not sure I understand exactly what you mean or need. What do you call metaplot in this instance? A reason to open a chapterhouse? To bring other characters in play?
So, hereâs some random thoughts Iâve had about this, in no particular orderâŠjust a bunch of ramblingâŠ
Iâd rather it not be a spin-off saga as what seems interesting to me is playing a journeyman who has to deal with the hierarchy of the covenant masters. In a spin-off saga, I would think that would be lost.
I do agree that there needs to a reason for the chapterhouse in the first place, beyond that itâs just a nice vacation spot for the covenant (although that might actually be one reason). Perhaps thereâs an interesting magic or faerie regio nearby that caught one of the mastersâ attention and they decided it needed further investigation but the covenant masters didnât want to waste their time on it. Maybe it serves as a good port to enhance the covenantâs mundane trade opportunities. Similar to the region idea, maybe there is something (magical, faerie, infernal) nearby that needs an eye kept on it.
As far as tying it in with the covenant, if I were SG I would throw a whole lot of different problems/issues/opportunities at the main covenant (ie. the masters) that there is no way they could possibly cover. Let them decide what is important enough for their attention, and then delegate the rest to the journeyman to handle. It might even make sense to modify the Charter to make the time spent as a Journeyman longer than 7-9 seasons so that we can explore that dynamic more. I havenât read nearly as much Ars Magica material, but I can easily imagine probationary periods being 10-15 years or longer in established covenants.
It seems that one of the ideas that spurred this concept was Fixerâs Mercere mage concept, which is cool. However, does it make sense for the one Gifted Mercere in the covenant to not be at Andorra proper when thatâs where the Mercer House is? Just a random thought more than anything, but what if we say every PLAYER can have one Gifted CHARACTER âheadquarteredâ at each location? That way we could possibly have Masters and Journeymen at both locations? Now Fixer may have no interest in Arachne being at Mallorca instead of Andorra, but itâs a thought. And honestly, once we have Mercer Portals up between each location, all that really means is where their lab is located.
One more thought/recommendation on Fixerâs MercereâŠI was thinking that it might be cool if one of the stipulations that comes up from the Redcap negotiations is that to allow Andorra to keep the Mercer House we have to allow in a Gifted Mercere to nominally ârunâ the house. This would be an interesting way to explain his appearance, and possibly create some interesting tension and roleplay between him as a journeyman running the house while there are two Redcap masters already in the covenant. Like I said, just a thought.
Ah, that. Thanks, PoB
I am perfectly happy with Arachné
I had no intention to have an additionnal character, but Ryu loved the idea, and thus... I have no problem with this, but I'll play her even less than arachné.
In short: Mercurian with Spell Binding and Imbued with the spirit of Vim. So spell binding essentially cost her no vis.
Oh, and I say Mercurian. I initially had her (semi-random choice) as a Tremere, I changed her to Mercurian since it seemed to be what ryu and marko wanted, I can easily change her to any other house, like Flambeau with Puissant Creo.
IMO, it is cool to have these in the background, we can even have secondary stories there should people be interested, but the focus should be in Andorra, with the Masters team.
Marko already proposed to have the probationary period extended to 7 years, and I agree entirely with you on this.
Majorca should be something tedious and time consuming, that the masters can't bother with. Like, something that ates 1 season per year. This explains why they don't go, resolves this, and depart. This may be one thing, or a collection of things.
Mundane: This is a port, so trade and all are a solution. Having another source of income. This would mean some magi could engage in politics to set up a new guild, while others could create enchantments that'd help on trade.
Hermetic: We may want both to strengthen our position by expanding and to help the mercere by setting up a relay in a port. We may face opposition by those who fear Andorra may want to become a new tribunal and/or would prefer it erased.
Faerie: There may be either a resource that needs the magi to spend time with the faeries (vis, grogs, texts, items, a portal to arcadia), playing their games, or a menace to be held back year after year. This may be done politically.
Magical: Well, wasn't Atlantis located there? The Masters might want some lackeys to search for it. Likewise, if some ruins were seen underwater, the magi may want the journeymen to investigate. This means creating the spells and all, and spending time exploring and cataloging what may be a waste of time (Or the sunken laboratory of hermanus, shameless cue!). This goes nicely with the bjornaer.
Given the covenants destroyed in arachné's background and the attack of andorra (for all the magi know, the two events might be related), the chapterhouse might be a safehouse: Go there, be stealthy, and build us a hidden fortress. This is fine for the mercurian.
Argh! Gotta go, I'll try to brainstorm more later.
Very well thought out and introspective 
I share many of these thoughts and like these ideas. My personal main desire is to find a new home for Roberto of Flambeau, who has developed a taste for sea adventures.
PIRATES!
Sea adventures with pirates could be fun with a shark bjornaer 8)
I modified the character (and by "modified" I mean "totally overhauled") and turned it into an Ex Misc of a Hedge tradition that studies Atlantean magic and transforms themselves into Atlanteans. Looks kind of like Prince Namor, and has mostly Aquam spells. Now let's see if I can pull off a lab total for a killer whale familiar...! (If a major magical focus in the sea applies-- and I think it should-- then it should be manageable.)
Orca familiar and Bjornaer shark will kick butts!