Significant NPCs
Inchmore Covenant Council of Advisors
The Steward - Tadhg O'Ceallaigh
Tadhg O Ceallaigh (O'Kelly)
Master Tadhg O'Ceallaigh is a severe and intensely proud gentleman of the noble Connacht O'Ceallaigh lineage sent by Circulus Ruber to serve as the Steward of Inchmore. As Inchmore is an open alod, a fact which seems to please him greatly, he spends a great deal of time and effort trying to manage the external protocols and interactions of the Covenant with exterior mundane forces. Projecting the demeanor of an elder statesman he moves through the stone halls of Inchmore manor with an unyielding legalistic dignity.
A scholar of Irish Brehon Law Master O'Ceallaigh has also taken it upon himself to thoroughly study the Charter of Inchmore and continually advises Inchmore's Council seeking to ensure it is adhered to. He is the legal architect and social administrator who manages Inchmore as an institution, albeit a young one, and seeks to ensure a smooth continuity between the internal Charter bylaws, the external edicts and relationships of the Covenant, and a continual and consistent application of Brehon Law. He seeks to build a flawless reputation for Inchmore that conveys that it is a traditionalist Gaelic institution that local Irish lords will feel compelled to respect and treat as an equal.
Tadhg has recently discovered that his first cousin, Lord Brian O'Conchobair of Athleague, has married Ava Dillon, a daughter of the Dillon Witches who lead the Tuath of Athlone. He views this marriage and the bloodline of his cousin both not as family gossip but as a legendary diplomatic opportunity. He regularly makes trips to visit his cousin and seek to build a strong relationship there, and with his witch-wife, while also encouraging the Magi to do likewise. He frames this as doing no more than the Continentals have done to interfere with mundanes in plainly siding with the English invaders. And indeed, is he not his own kin? Yet it is clear his ambitions reach farther than simple acquaintance and friendly relations. Tadhg is intensely motivated to tie his extended family to the Covenant, perhaps even to the extent of making them "Pet Nobles" of the Covenant. Inchmore exerting a dominant influence over Athlone, the Dillons, and perhaps even Connacht are all goals he finds intrinsically valuable and worth pouring the resources of the Covenant into.
Tadhg has an intense personality centered in intellect and system optimization, treating nearly all things as processes he seeks to optimize to the advantage of Inchmore. He isn't risk averse and in fact seems quite bold in that regard as long as the strategy of a calculated risk seems sound. He does however seem to struggle with personal and emotional matters which it is clear he finds distasteful. Above all Tadhg seems a man driven by legacy and the desire to leave his name amongst the most significant list of those who made Inchmore what it is to future generations.
The Marshal - Berthold
Berthold of the Rhine
Marshal Berthold is a heavily scarred German hedge-knight and mercenary of long and brutal experience. Formerly a Companion of Dalton he has agreed to retire from that life, since he is getting too fucking old as he would say, and come from Lambaird to serve as the Marshal of Inchmore. He speaks Gaelic with a thick gravelly accent that drips of German origins and barks his commands at the Turbmen with militaristic harshness. He patrols and trains with the Turbmen every day in full harness and seems to think it is only a matter of time before the young Covenant will have to defend itself in a serious way.
For now he seems focused on training the mixed collection of Turbmen that the young Covenant has been left with into a cohesive trained unit. In particular he spends several days each week training the men specifically to defend the quay and its tower from attempts at a hostile landing there. He makes no effort to conceal this training and when asked has said plainly that if enemies can see you are well prepared, that is when you might not have to fight them.
Berthold is more than simply a fighter or a sergeant at arms, he is a knight of no small ability and seemingly an educated tactician and strategist beyond what his appearance might indicate. He is already lobbying Master O'Ceallaigh for resources to standardize the equipment of the Turb, and start bringing in the Mercenary men and standardizing and training them as well. He also wants some dedicated archers trained to man the watch towers that Inchmore has throughout its defenses. The Steward seems annoyed at times with the never ending list of needs that he receives. Master O'Ceallaigh has asked a time or two "Is he trying to build an army?" Berthold answers: "Of course. And a good one."
Berthold however wouldn't say he is seeking conflict. Yet he does believe that the new Covenant will only truly deter aggression by winning a series of decisive victories in any early conflicts that they have. To that purpose while he isn't seeking trouble for Inchmore he will readily and aggressively respond to anything that happens out of a desire to show the world that Inchmore is no place to seek trouble. Part of Berthold wants to be the man who builds that safety for the young Covenant by winning those victories. Another part of him seems desperately concerned with his own age and the task of finding and training a replacement. He wishes to be secure in the knowledge that the Covenant is ready for the future without him, yet has no such confidence currently.
His bellicose ways and words have lead to the exchange of some choice words with English knights standing on the shores of the lake already.
The Bailiff - Sean O'Farrell
Sean O'Farrell
Bailiff Sean O'Farrell is an exceptionally well-dressed, almost pathologically charming, merchant factor dispatched by Circulus Ruber to manage the economic interests of Inchmore. Wearing tailored continental style silks and handling the financial ledgers with a light theatrical grace Sean operates the shrewd Master of Coin for Inchmore. Because the Covenant is an open alod Sean does not try to conceal or blend in his commercial dealings with regular mundane trade. Instead he makes open use of the Covenant's independent and un-taxed status as a commercial advantage. Owing no royal taxes to any feudal lord Sean could theoretically undercut any merchant syndicate in the region, so long as that status remains honored, though for now he tempers this ability with prices not too dissimilar to those of the local merchants. Particularly in Gaelic territories he attempts to be more diplomatic and not compete "too" aggressively with the local guilds and tradesmen. A philosophy he also strictly applies in the neighboring Athlone, but not so earnestly in more English territories up and down the river. Yet regardless even more "normal" shares of trade lend the Covenant a larger than usual profit due to the lack of many taxes.
It is clear that wealth is one of his primary motivations for both Inchmore and himself. Which he would place first should such wealth be threatened remains to be seen. Yet he does not dissemble to the rest of the council or the Magi about his eager participation in enterprises for profit that others might find objectionable.
His personality seems a strange combination of the deeply charming and persuasive along with the socially adversarial. He seeks to "win" encounters wherever he can, and "losses" are bones of contention and things he eventually seeks to rectify. Sean isn't a man to forget a friend or a slight, they are all accounted for and tracked as meticulously as every penny in his ledgers.
Sean has spent the last couple of years when Inchmore was being founded establishing a commercial and illicit network up and down the river and beginning to stretch beyond it. He is a known face already to the "right people" of Athlone. River masters, toll keepers, customs houses, and inn keepers alike are on his payroll. He has yet to make contact however the goblins beneath the city, yet is eager to come to some sort of positive terms with them.
He has family, the Farrells of Annaly, have lands to the northeast. He, as an "extra son", stood to inherit nothing but his name and so has literally sought a broader fortune elsewhere. With great energy and motivation. Some distant relatives and family associates none the less have lands along the northeast of the lake and the north eastern stretches of the river Shannon. These connections have been readily exploited in his development of a trade network for Inchmore.
The mercenaries, and their accompanying criminal element, has been drawn into his orbit. They naturally have many of the talents that he needs and he of course has money. Nature has taken its course and that relationship so far is healthy and strong. They frequently escort him on his travels for the commercial interests of Inchmore. And if all involved can make some extra profit along the way, well Sean isn't one to be squeamish over the details.
The Chamberlain - Gillean FitzGerald
Gillean FitzGerald
Dame Gillean FitzGerald is an attractive gentlewoman in her early thirties who manages the domestic heart of Inchmore with an icy aristocratic poise. Her massive ring of iron keys are displayed openly on her hip like a badge of office or a weapon. The servants of the manor take instant note of the sound of the keys and do not conceal their fear.
Sent from the martial halls of Lombaird to govern the domestic heart of Inchmore she moves through the stone halls of the manor with an icy aristocratic poise that commands absolute obedience from the domestic staff. Gillean manages the great house in a way that blends logistics and discipline with a demand for aesthetic and form. The comfort of the Magi may be effortlessly taken for granted, and to her that is their lordly due, but Dame FitzGerald is constantly watching to ensure the domestic staff is equally constantly providing that standard of living to her very exacting standards.
Born a FitzGerald, a noble family of Leinster, she was destined for a very different life until her inborn gift for Embitterment manifested itself. With no training or control over her ability there was a series of scandals during her teenage years that led to a stark and abrupt estrangement from her family. Instead she came destitute seeking shelter at Lombaird, the nearest Hermetic Covenant where she had been told those touched by magic could find welcome and more.
At Lombaird pure logistical and domestic competence became her way of proving her worth, earning her place, and thanking the Covenant for her survival. Being trained there to be able to understand her ability she has come to keep it almost entirely under control and only the Magi have been informed that it even exists. For fifteen years she has managed much of the domestic affairs of the Magi of Lombaird, under the Steward there, and now has been rewarded with this position at Inchmore. To Gillean she has finally been vindicated and earned her way back to a status commensurate with her birth rank, a status which she has written spitefully to inform her long estranged family of.
A striking woman whose competence and beauty frequently draw gentlemanly attention from visiting knights, merchants, and even Covenant officers, Gillean seems completely and utterly obliviouis to these romantic overtures. That aside she seems intensely motivated, willing to do nearly anything one might suspect, in order to keep her hard earned position and regained social standing.
In any Council dispute she strives to place herself solely aligned with the interests of the Covenant and the Magi as a whole, which she believes to be her duty and obligation. Relying on tradition and customary form for decision making she is a steady conservative voice of counsel to Inchmore. Yet one where frequently there is no middle ground, thinking in absolutes and being hard to persuade.
The Teacher - Diarmaid O'Cobhthaigh
Diarmaid O'Cobhthaigh
Scholar Diarmaid O'Cobhthaigh is a proud fiercely articular academic trained in Hermetic ways and more at Longmist who wears his scholarly mantle with the quiet dignity of a high judge. Viewing education as a vital weapon with which to resist what he sees as the English threat to Hibernian ways, and the Continental threat to the Ordo Hiberniae, he is seemingly tireless in his efforts to preserve and spread traditional Hibernian ways and lore.
While the Covenant Manor and Ringfort were being erected he stubbornly redirected resources to the construction of a small but well equipped scriptorium and adjoining school. Overseeing these efforts himself it was no shock when he was granted his position there as Inchmore came into being. He oversees the scribes and clerks of the Covenant while striving to produce more, and to likewise spend what time he has to spare educating more generally. The formal paperwork of the Covenant comes to him before being filed and archived, and already has a reputation for being more strict with the documents as documents than any other.
Diarmaid's pedagogy is intensely political and traditionalist. For instance he teaches latin using ancient Hibernian histories, accounts of famed Magi of the Ordo Hiberniae, complex genealogies of Gaelic Houses, and civil tracts of Brehon Law. Likewise Magic Theory is taught using accounts of the examination of pre-Hermetic druidic lore, or experiments by Pralixians, or similar figures he finds more sympathetic. Diarmaid is not simply a teacher he is a cultural partisan. He has had some stern words with some of the local clergy already over the past few years wherein he did not seem shy about expressing his unwavering support for the Celtic Church. There may still be some tension there. It is clear to any who care to pay attention that he has an ideological agenda at Inchmore though equally clearly this agenda aligns with traditional Hibernian ways. Those who would moderate this agenda will find a ready firebrand in opposition. He has a great eye for details and an academic mind yet his fervor for his cultural cause often prevents him from bothering to think about the bigger picture. An intelligent and deeply passionate man his decisions are often highly motivated when they touch on cultural topics, yet away from this field he is a deep thinker.
Diarmaid has taken to formalizing contracts he has drawn up with signing ceremonies taking place at the Oath Stone. This practice is new but the quality of the legal work and the assurance of the Stone at Inchmore seem to make this a small but growing service offered by the Covenant.
Ambassador To Athlone - Raymond de Perrers
Sir Raymond de Perrers
Sir Raymond de Perrers is an impressive heavily armored Norman secular knight who operates as the official noble factor and ambassador for Inchmore to Athlone. Unlike the other officers of Inchmore he was not sent by one of the patron Covenants. Instead he arrived during the early months of the construction and founding of the Covenant leading a hardened lance of heavy cavalry as one of the mercenary units hired by the patrons to defend the founding activities. He was quickly proven competent, efficiently violent, shrewdly diplomatic, and very expensive.
His natural aristocratic poise conceals a raw well of mercenary violence so well that the shift between the two can catch some off guard. Or be unsettling. Raymond speaks the precise elegant French of the royal courts as well as a legalistic fluent Gaelic. He treats his diplomatic station as a matter of high standing worthy of his social rank as a knight. He regularly travels to Athlone to interact with the knightly retinue of Baron Montrose on peer terms. He has met and spoken with Montrose on several occasions. He represents Inchmore to the Normans as a legitimate naval allodial barony on the Shannon that keeps the local river trade safe, and pointedly desires positive relations with Athlone and Montrose.
He claims to be a dispossessed nobleman who formerly held lands far to the east on the continent that were sacked and taken in war. Ever since he has sought to renew his fortunes through the trade of arms. He does not however divulge where exactly any of this took place, out of he says discretion lest any old enemies might hear of him and still seek him out. It is likely de Perrers then is not his real name.
The Spiritual Guide - Brother Joseph
Brother Joseph
Brother Joseph is a humble barefoot Franciscan friar who carries nothing but a plain wooden cross and walks freely between the disease-ridden slums of Athlone and the fortified ringworks of Inchmore. He holds no official rank or standing in either Athlone or Inchmore, receives no salary from anyone, cares nothing about either Hermetic or Feudal Law, or any power or titles. Brother Joseph seems somewhat educated, more than many common priests though not among the truly educated princes of the church, yet lives a life of complete poverty without seeming to seek more in any way. He arrived on the island during the founding of Inchmore to minister to the unfree laborers, stonemasons, and other tradesmen employed there by the patron Covenants. His absolute, seemingly unshakeable, Christian piety has earned him the fierce protection and devotion of the turbmen and covenfolk along with the respect of much of the region's clergy.
Oddly enough Joseph, in his regular wandering and ministry to the needy of the region, has come to serve both as an another sort of ambassador for the Covenant of Inchmore as well a source of information to found amongst the common man. He reassures those of Inchmore that the people of Athlone are simply deeply curious and worried about what the nature of their new found neighbors are. Meanwhile he has reassured those of Athlone that the turbmen of Inchmore are just men like any others, and prayed with him as good Christians, so they have nothing to worry about. It is beyond doubt that few have so many social connections throughout social strata throughout the region as Brother Joseph. He continues to find a warm bowl and place to rest his head whenever he chooses to stay at Inchmore.
It should be noted however that the Franciscans do not have papal approval at this time. Their vows of poverty and deep criticism of the wealth of the broader Church are not simply divergent they are radical and strongly opposed by the Church establishment. Brother Joseph preaches loudly and without reserve about just such topics and it is no secret that some of the senior figures in the Church in region are not very fond of him at all.
Moreover as much as some at Inchmore might value his simple priestly diplomacy and the information on the region he freely shares others are keen to note that he shares just as freely about Inchmore as he does with Inchmore.
Ambassador To Faerie - Brighid
Brighid
Brighid the Changeling is an ethereal and deeply unsettling woman sent by Vigil to advise the Council of Inchmore. Her pupils shift color with the weather, she laughs seemingly without cause, and she moves with a weightless fluid grace that leaves no footprints. She has rapidly become the first stop for the Crannogmen in seeking to interact with the Covenant, as she and the Faerie-touched Crannogmen intuitively understand one another.
Over the past two years she has, from that beginning, also become likewise noticed and sought out by Faerie in any interactions. Particularly she has had interactions with several nobles of the Court of Meadhbh when they stopped on the isle after exiting the Trod on the western shore of the lake. She has thus far managed to emerge from these interactions with a friendly and positive standing for Inchmore. Her rapport with Faerie is nothing new, it is why Vigil sent her afterall, but her rapport specifically with the Faeries in the vicinity of Inchmore is growing.
Quietly, without fanfare, Brighid practices Faerie Bargaining as an unGifted Faerie sorceress. Her particular areas of Sympathy and affinity seem to be with Courtly and Chivalric Faeries. This makes her connection with the Court of Meadhbh deeper than might initially be expected, and understandable. Yet it also means she frequently has bargains and ongoing stories involving Faerie entanglements that might not be known to the rest of the Covenant until complications might start to come home.
Brighid is uncannily, even startlingly, beautiful despite any strangeness. She appears to be if anything only getting more attention from the Courtly Fae as her presence on Inchmore becomes more known. One courtier from the Court of Meadhbh has already been overheard calling her the new "Helen of Ireland" and voicing he would be surprised if a war isn't fought over her soon.
She seems deeply familiar with the High Roads and Trods of Faerie, perfectly comfortable traveling them. She has offered to go and represent the Covenant to the Courts directly, but so far this has been seen as too great of a risk for a non-Magus. Perhaps someone would go with her?