Yup, apprentice from journeyman totally makes sense... But only if he's allowed to stay.
Mostly irrelevant, but, for story and background purposes, the "my old covenant had no place for me" thingie is good.
Also, what if you know the guy, but he's such a burden you want him to leave?
Language to the effect of: "Upon the recommendation of his master who is also a a Master of the Covenant may seek an immediate vote to be accepted as a member of the Covenant, with the rank of journeyman." The first requires the master vouching for his apprentice. If the master doesn't, there's a reason, he thinks the apprentice needs to spread his wings a bit or thinks he's lousy. But it does give the master some say in whether the apprentice stays or goes, which I think is important.
Ok, warning: work beginning to catch up with me. And my boss coming to ask things and work together. So my presence may become random :-/
Excellent idea. I shall keep that wording in mind 
The idea of this border, existing (I'm presuming it's underwater or sometimes underwater) along with the possibility that I might make a Bjornaer with an Orca heartbeast makes me think of Free Willy.
Discuss.
Sorry, but I keep picturing the whale falling through sky from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...
Get ready for fat jokes.
Pretty much heard 'em all in real life. I'm still trying to figure it out in my head, if I want to do this. I could see any Bjornaer with an aquatic heartbeast also being a second class Bjornaer, in some ways. Certainly sharks can't stay in their heartbeast form without some magic to move themselves about AND help them breathe. And my Orca character idea wouldn't be able to do much, either. In fact, at the beginning of the Gathering of ten years, others will keep well away from him, because he might crush others as he transformed.
Why? If you're in your heartbeast form, you ARE that beast. If your heartbeast is a shark, then when you're in heartbeast you ARE a shark. You can swim and breathe just like a shark does, because you are a shark.
Not if you're on land. If a shark is out of the water, they can't move or breathe, except to flop around like a dying fish.
I now interrupt the Shark vs. Orca debate for an obscure rules question...
My Jerbiton will be a generally unhealthy guy who spends time in the company of unhealthy women. I was thinking a spell or enchanted item that helps him resist disease would make sense, even if it never comes up in play. However, A&A has let me down - it includes rules for contracting disease but no CrCo benchmarks for improving someone's ability to resist disease. Is anyone familiar with a way to do this using Hermetic magic?
I would assume that a Bjornaer with an aquatic heartbeast would be in heartbeast when in water, and not when he's on land!
Why not just take the appropriate virtue?
But the point was raised about him being on land and being ineffective in heartbeast form without the aid of movement and breathing.
Not sure the pool nearby is big enough. But the opening rite of the Gathering of Twelve years forces all of the members present to assume their heartbeast.
I'm not sure what virtue you're referring to, but in general, I don't want him to have any inherent resistance to disease. I strongly considered giving him Fragile Constitution. He's a fat guy who doesn't exercise, drinks like a fish, and isn't picky about his sexual partners. His lifestyle is destroying his body, which ties into his Difficult Longevity Ritual flaw. My plan is for him to rely on magic to make his life easier and cheat his way through every problem, including his physical issues.
That's a great concept!
I think it takes a CrCo ritual to cure diseases, though.
He wants something along the line of the CrCo guidelines that improve healing, but geared towards preventing disease, rather than healing.
I wonder if taking the numbers for CrCo and healing and dividing them by some number could be used to create a rough guideline that does this. Dividing by 6 maybe, so +1 at Base 3, +2 at Base 5, and +3 at Base 15.
I can't think of a way that you could magically make yourself "resistant" to disease, by Ars mechanics, because the ease factors are for the disease to affect a population.
Though... we could extrapolate on that. A disease with an EF6 affects about half the population, and a disease of EF12 affects nearly everyone. If the disease makes a stress die roll to affect any one individual, and the EF is applied to each individual target as the ease factor for the individual to resist the disease, then those numbers make sense.
A non-ritual CrCo could possibly lower the disease's EF for the individual.
Thanks.
I was thinking of something along those lines.
The system in A&A is designed for individuals. In brief, the 'disease avoidance roll' is Sta + Living Condition modifier + (Corpus/5) + Wound Penalty + stress die, against the Stable ease factor of the disease. That means the ease factor is 4 or 6 for most diseases, with the really nasty ones hitting 9 or 12. The Improve ease factor ranges from 10 to 18.
Now that I'm taking a good look at those ease factors, I'm reconsidering Fragile Constitution. It's going to be far too difficult for Pere to contract the 'French Pox', especially if we allow CrCo options to resist it.
I just want to check one thing though... his name is Pere, is that because he's always asking women, "Who's your daddy?"