How often a Wizard is Marched?

Being a Hoplite is cool, being in Legion of Mithras is even more cool but to get there, one must fight enemies of the Order, like marched wizards. Moreover, I've heard that hunting outlawsis a popular pasttime in House Flambeau. Players like it too, as long as spoils of victory are nice.
However, I have a question to community. How many wizard one can expect to be Marched in average Tribunal in, say, 7 years, without the risk of seriously depopulating the order? One? Two? One every 33 years? How does it look like in your Saga?

This may not be the answer you are looking for, but it depends on the players. If none of the players are really interested in Marches, then I wouldn't bother with them. It takes table time away from elements the players are interested in. You have a hoplite, though, so I'd make them more common - have Marches occur often enough that the character gets to shine. Now, if the whole covenant was a group of hoplites, the entire saga should probably be devoted to Wizard Marches and other threats to the Order.

To give you a little data, I've only played in one saga that saw a Wizard Marched. About 10 game years in, an entire covenant of over a dozen magi was Marched for bringing down the wrath of the church. However, all my other Ars sagas put together probably only add up to 20 years.

Something I've been meaning to look up is how the process of getting Marched occurs, and if it occurs retroactively. For example, group with Quaesitor come across some damning evidence of malfeasance on a magus' part - in this case a Redcap's remains found dead in a chamber beneath the suspect's sanctum, and the ghost of the dead Redcap confirms that it was the magus' escaped labwork that killed him and the magus then covered it up.

The magus suspect might flee - how does the quaesitor proceed? Does a Tribunal need to be called or somesuch? Strangely, we've never had a Quaesitor PC in my games until this latest saga...

Vrylakos

In the two long running saga's I've run, Marches have happened only very rarely and usually as the climax of a long running plotline of intrigue. Hoplites, Flambeau and other defenders of the Order have contented themselves with dealing with other supernatural threats, such as dangerous hedge wizards, marauding giants and the threat of dragons. That said, in my saga's the PC magi have generally not been actively involved in the Marches.

I don't know if it's survived into the current edition, but the 4th ed Wizard's Grimoire describes the concept of the Wizard's Council. Essentially any group of magi (or even a single magus) can make a legal decision and act upon it. The decisions of a larger and more diverse council trumps those of smaller councils... a covenant council can overrule a lone magi, a council comprised of multiple covenants can overrule a covenent council, a tribunal can overrule a multi-covenant council and the grand tribunal can overrule anyone else. The decisions of a council are legal and binding until and unless overruled by a higher council.

So, under that system, the quaesitor could call together a wizards council, convict and even renounce the malefactor and have him Marched. However, the ruling of the council could brought before the tribunal for review and overruled. If someone has killed the renounced magus in the interum, a hoplite could potentially find himself declared in violation of the Code and possibly even Marched for killing another magus.

Obviously, this opens up a whole can of worms... from which great stories and intrigues could spring.

Post sounds like a Flambeau joke (no offense meant):

Q: How often is a wizard marched?
A: Once.

I have to say I love that! :laughing:

Chris

Jeanmichelle, I like it!

LOL :mrgreen:

What is your signature Xavi? You are not the only one with that kind of weird signature :smiley: and it makes me crazy not to know.

It's the Ars Magica Code:

redcap.org/FAQ/FAQ4a3.html

Vrylakos

Unfortunately I saw this thread so late that somebody had beaten me to the point. Good one though!

I was about so say "Once - otherwise you're not doing it right!"

But seriously, sure you have to consider not depopulating the Order, or destabilizing it with the constant March because of misdeeds and crimes. For the most part the Code prevents this thing.
But playing Hoplites you'd want this kind of thing. I playes such a maga once and really loved this thing. Hunting and killing but also investigating. So I'd mix in in with other threats (edit: I actually wrote 'treats' the first time...Freudian Slip anyone?) like...werewolves or evil hedge wizards. Or start a story line where some Pralicians integrate a lot of hedgies into Ex Misc, and they start to act out and must be brought down. And the old saga with my ica maga hoplite saw the return of Diedne allied with dark faeries (a theme which is either 'a classic' or a 'don't go there' depending on your personal preferences). Sadly it ended before we got really going.

That's a good conclusion! :smiley:

IMS players enjoy quick hoplite stories - something that can be concluded in 1-3 game sessions and that can be a good break between more weighty matters. While Ultraviolet's ideas of rogue Ex Miscallenea group or return of Diedne are certainly interesting, things like that would have too big influence on Hermetic politics. In my case I want to concentrate on Lotharingian Tribunal :wink: Using hedgies and werewolves is also not perfect - could you imagine getting an invitation to Legion of Mithras due to Reputatation "Slayer of Folk Witches +3". I think I'll just double (or triple) official Hermetic population and then I could realistically have some individual Marched every couple of years

Sure, we also generally play with a higher magus population than RAW, because then it's easier to sacrfice someone and villify others.