House diedne

Hiya all.

I keep seeing references to these guys.
Are they the Druids? I thought merlin and co would be house meridae(sp?)

Are they described somewhere?

Lots of places, but the info is scattered and I don't know if there's a full writeup of what the House was like anywhere. (If there isn't, there probably won't be, either.)

House Diedne are descended from a Druidic tradition, yes (calling them pure "Druids" is like saying all Trianomae are Infernalist witches). They were Marched and wiped out in the Schism War, which was a war between the Order's Houses started by the Tremere. Some Diedne lineages still exist (under deep cover) in Merinitia and Ex Miscellanea.

I was reading the hedge magic stuff, and they refer to a diedne virtue of spontaneous casting.. And I can't for the life of me find where it is...

The diedne were a former house descended from a Breton druidess and were marched en mass during the Schism war.

It is possible that some Diedne remain in 1220, but details concerning the house have been deliberately kept vague because David Chart wanted them to remain a sinister, but mysterious presence and felt that defining the house in too much detail would prove too constraining.

What we do know:

  1. They were, at the outbreak of the schism war, the largest and best organized house in the OoH.
  2. Their domus magnus, Branugurix, was situated near Mount Dol in Normandy, but vanished during the war.
  3. They all practiced the same pagan house religion.
  4. Non-hermetic (or at least unGifted) druids were said to be members of the house.
  5. They were extremely skilled at spontaneous magic, but were said to have trouble with ritual spells.

Hope this helps.

Actually, that's a Virtue from the Core rulebook. :slight_smile: They've been infecting us since the start.

You mean they aren't!? Sure fooled me. :laughing:

(Just in case it isn't obvious to Dionysus, I'm joking)

House Diedne was a rogue band of magicians descended from a druidic tradition. They were clannish, rude, and generally hostile to the other Houses. House Tremere led the attack on them after evidence was uncovered that the Diedne were conducting human sacrifices, and magi of several Houses joined the decade-long campaign to eradicate them.

... It's a bad idea to have only one set of opinions in the air.

Indeed, I had a saga where the evidence against them was manufactured by House Guernicus in a long term plan to take over the Order... The ensuing Schism War weakened House Tremere greatly... Anyway, the story of House Diedne as described is so vague as to lend itself to whatever story you wish to tell.

The current, arguably best supplement that describes house Diedne is Sub Rosa #13 - that's the current fanzine for Ars Magica. The first article in there is "everything that is canon about Diedne, in the last five editions of the game". That issue then has a couple of articles that each take a different slant on building your own house Diedne, as well as a retrospective about the "house Diedne" book that never got written.

Here's a link to the review topic for that issue: Sub Rosa #13: The Thirteenth House Unearthed!

You can buy that...from someone on the forums. I forget who. It's, like, four bucks, or something, for the .PDF file. (EDIT - or I could read the topic I linked to - there's a blurb at the bottom of the first post on how to buy a copy.)

Seriously - if you are interested in house Diedne at ALL, it's well worth the $4.50 for the first article alone.

Thanks. I'll pass the praise along to Gerald (author of said piece).

Mark, say hi to Gerald for me as well, when you contact him.

Matt Ryan