Income Sources for Covenants

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

Hi folks (and good chrismas holidays for everyone :smiley:)

After reading most of the nice book City & Guild I had the idea of this thread: a place for all magical and non-magical idead of income sources for covennats.

I wont list the many goods (gems, gold, safran, pepper, pearls) that could be created with Creo magic, this would be too easy I think. And such things as a gold/alun/copper/turbinium-mine or just many farms with many grain to sell are so obvoius I doubt that should be listened too.

But lets start:

The Ear of Amber
Possible Points: Eastern Sea, Baltic Coasts
The covenant has some magical devices that allows the wearer to "hear" pieces of amber, that are arround him. With this tool some grogs of the covenant can find much, much more amber on the coast line than normal searchers. And they can even find them under water, a place which cant be harvested normally.

White Gold
Possible Points: On every sea coast, the best point would be near a future Hanse city
The covenant lies direct on the coast, possible on an island. They have some transport ship and own some of the coas of their place. At some (well guarded and posisble hidden) point, there are great stone holes in the ground that can be flooded easily. After floding it with saltwater and covering the hole with something that have small holes in it too (to make it a Room target) a ReAq spell that turns the water isntantly into steam is cast by a magus or an item. The steam flows through the small hohles away, leaving behind the salt. This can be redone many times a day and costs nearly nothing.

Hidden Valley
Possible Points: away from the big trading routes for oriental products, somewhere in the mountains or in a regio
Inside a hidden vally in high mountains many exotic plants like pepper, safran, weihrauch/olibanum, cinnamon, exotic fruits, dragonblood and so on grows. This is because of the many Auram (for the weather) and Ignem (for the temperature) spells that are cast by the nearby covenant. Because of the long usage of this spell the valley developed a magical aura of 1, which makes the fruits (that can be harvested at every time of the year) look even more delicious.
Perhaps the plant that grow in this valley is unique (some kind of fearie or magical plant) and even people from India need this plant for something.

Smell of Money
Possible Points: at every point with many flowers
A very thrustworthy grog of the covennat has a special duty during the spring and summertime: equipped with a magical device that collects the smell essence of flowers without harming the plant he travels around in the area and collects very precious flower essences that are needed by everyone who wants to make perfumes and many alchemists (and magi) of course need them too.

Pearls of the Beautiful Folk
Possible Points: a place with a nearby fearie underwater regio
The copvenant have a pact with the leaders of a fearie kingdom that lies underwater. For something the fearies need and want (growing things like bread or bear, kids, the destruction of roads/villages, musicans, magical items that producemusic and so on) they trade some of their pearls that are bigger and better than even the best arabian pearls.

Christs Net
Possible Points: near the ocean or a big sea
A device that attarcts even the largest swarm of fish is used by the covenants fishermen to cath so much fish that not only everyone in the covenant can be feed, there is so much fish left that it can be sold for high prices in the nearby towns.

Little Hands, Big Price
Possible Points: Everywhere
The covenant has achieved to trick a whole bunch of fearies (like the Heinzelmännchen of german myth) to work for 777 years for the covennat and produce their finest craft products: shoes, clothes, wood produtcs ect. But of course these products look like if they wwerent made by a human hand and perhaps the fearies want to trick the magi in order to escape from their duty.

Second Alexandria
Possible Points: a city in a rich region (north italy, netherlands)
The covenant owns a own university and libary with many good teachers, students and good contacts to the local churchmen. The whole structure of the university is enchanted with many different spells (and because of this some teachers and long time studens might be warped) that increases the amount of things learned in a season (most of them mentem spells) and somethims even magi from the covenant or supernatural beeings like fearies or dragons (hidden in human form of course) study and teach there, so this university is very popular in europe and even people from arabia and india come to study there.
Because of this the income (and the contacts and the books available) of the university and libary is more than enough for the covenants member to live a good life.

Please discuss this and add more ideas for income sources. :slight_smile:

2

Some good ideas here, Lucius, but as a refinement on this one:

[quote]

White Gold
Possible Points: On every sea coast, the best point would be near a future Hanse city
The covenant lies direct on the coast, possible on an island. They have some transport ship and own some of the coas of their place. At some (well guarded and posisble hidden) point, there are great stone holes in the ground that can be flooded easily. After floding it with saltwater and covering the hole with something that have small holes in it too (to make it a Room target) a ReAq spell that turns the water isntantly into steam is cast by a magus or an item. The steam flows through the small hohles away, leaving behind the salt. This can be redone many times a day and costs nearly nothing.

[quote]

Well, you don't need to cover the hole: this is how salt is made in Australia today: big evaporation pits. What I'd do is just put square tubs in the pit, fill the pit with water, and evasporate. I'd do it over and over until the tubs were full, then nail them shut and carry them to market still in the tubs.

3

Well, unless you are in an area that is very poor, this would work once. The second time it wouldn't work. Assuming a sea or place where there are some bodies of water, then everyone can support themselves well enough from fishing...If you transported the goods inland, or to some place where there isn't much water, then you could do well..

4

Pretty darn cool, thanks Lucius.

5

Or you could use the white gold to make the fish far more durable... the mighty and wealthy Hanse build its empire on fish and salt.

@Erik: I cover these holes because I think a hle without a roof isnt a Room target, and if you want to change all the water in this "room" you need a "roof" so the "roof" is only needed thanks to Bonisagus, so address complains to his mailbox at durenmar.de. :wink:

I have additional (more sinful) ideas.

Black Gold
Possible Points: near pagan lands, north of africa
The covenant have contracts with slave hunters: not only are there many slaves which works in the covenant that can be bought for low prices, the covenant owns a PeMe item that is used on every slave the slave hunters bring them. This item permanently removes all thoughts of independence, freedom, rebellion and so on from the poor slave. More than thousand slaves are needed in order to earn the normal 100 mythic pound per year.

Drug Dealer
Possible Points: near big citys or important trading routes
This extremly sinful method of earning mony could be made with many kinds of drugs: some strange fearie flowers, Mentem or Imaginem items that create drug-like effects, there could be a magical or infermal creature in the covenant that absorbs a strange slime that can be uses like a drug or sometghing like this. Because of this the covenant (or the house in wich the drug is sold, wich shouldnt be the covenant itself) is often visited by rich merchants, nobles, even churchmen who could be blackmailed with this. These drugs should create effects that match some of the seven deadly sins.

6

Paradisiac island

Location: mediteranean sea (might be a greec island for example) Your island is paradisiac and the covenent itself is enormous and luxuous even for mages. You invite peoples from other covenents to come in vacations trips in exchange of: mondain money, vis, books, luxuous components or whatever.

bad side: some mages are insane and dangerous... or bring a dark faith with them...

7

Faerie's Bane

(could be anywhere, mountains would be better)

The covenant owns and runs an iron mine and smelter, producing much sought after iron for all willing to pay. The fay, of course, do not like this one bit. Magic could be used to smelt the ore into iron without all the attendant fire and smoke, or reliably make high quality steels. The downside to this is that you may find yourself having to defend your works from all comers, who try to take it as your own.

The same idea applies to copper and tin as well.

Steve

8

Have a couple of fairly "mundane" income sources from the Ionian Islands:

  1. ships' stores - covenant is located near a source of rather magical pitch. Naturally forming and rising from the earth, the pitch can contain both limited vis (under special circumstances) and is a superior sealer of ships cracks.

  2. Dyes - do to covenant's relationship with the minor "goddess"/power fey noble (depending on your interpretation of the Greek pantheon) Chloris, several flowering plants in the area provide significant dyes, most notably saffron.

  3. Perfume - see above.

9

Ah, this illustrates the curse of faerie riches, which I'm reading about in a book from the library now. Sure, the faeries can give you saffron: but the only people who have saffron -now- in Mythic Europe are the Venetians. If you make saffron, they will do to you what they did to Constantinople. The Venetians are right hard bastards: they will destroy your town, and kill everyone in it if necessary, to secure their monopoly.

This is a recurrent theme in C&G: make too much cool stuff, and you need to face the Venetians. And you can't just kill them because Venice has chapter houses from a dozen covenants in it, and you never know which Autumn covenant you are going to annoy.

10

The secret is not to compete with the monopoly.
Import Saffron (at least a regular amount each year) ,
and augment it with your own "House Brand".

Another item is Olive Oil.
It is a time-consuming process to manufacture it.
Olive Oil extraction
Hermetic Magic can easily streamline this process ,
unless you just create the Olive Oil directly.

While not as expensive as Saffron ,
it would be a good addition as a money earner for the Covenant.

Another simple thing Hermetic Magi can do is supply high quality Flour.
An easy PeTe spell removes all the grit left in the flour by traditional grinding methods.

(it will be 02 to 04 weeks before i have City & Guild to refer to)

11

You could use a magic item (ReAq/He) that draws the juices out of a plant.
Which enables you to produce a varietyof oils, juices and dyes.

Such as oil from roses, almonds.

In the same process, you get dried fruit, enhacing the covenants storing capacity.
You might want to use this with a circular ward against Vermin and a circular ward against mould. :wink:

Id rather use MuHe to transform the cereal into flower. No more need for grinding stones.

12

My suggestions were based more on the consideration of a certain amount of "blending-in" when manufacturing.
If there are no trappings of industry at your covenant , or a possible/plausible trade route ,
eventually you may come in for mundane investigation.

There is the situation where you might run afoul of a monopoly from another covenant , Venice being named as a likely contender.

Some of this is the source of Stories for your Saga.
If you gain a Reputation for "Dealing with the Devil" for example ,
The Church will insist that all good Christians have nothing to do with
"unnaturally formed goods that will corrupt your eternal soul".

Running a black market in luxury goods despite Church opposition would be easy ,
but this may play into Infernal machinations leading people into Sin ,
starting with simple Greed and then getting progressively worse.

13

Actually ReHe would probably be preferable, since it can perform any action that a craftsman can, it doesn't require the actual tools (no grinding stone needed), and this effect would be permanent once cast without the use of Vis.

There are no real ways to make a Muto effect permanent, even with Vis (to my knowledge).

14

How about a PeHe to "shatter" the grains into a powder?

15

ReHe...

Perdo "always makes things worse" - so you'll get a powder which is in some way "damaged"
Muto always is "unnatural" and cannot be sustained except by active magic (and so can't be "permanent" or "real")

16

"The Venetians are right hard bastards: they will destroy your town, and kill everyone in it if necessary, to secure their monopoly."

Tim,

Yup, pretty much. The sole buyer of the saffron is Venice and they maintain a factor on Zante just for the covenant's saffron output. They deal between the covenant and Venice is that covenant gets to operate in a spot that is under their vassalage (by way of the Orsini family) in exchange for the the exclusive purchase of the saffron. The magi do get to use a percentage of the saffron for covenant uses and are allowed to sell a small amount as refined products to other covenants.

17

Double Post.

18

Perdo (page 78 , ArM 05) contains the information relevant here.
(if you need the wording by the RAW)

19

So what stops sneaky Covenants augmenting legitimate purchases of Saffron ,
with [color=blue]Saffron Lite.
(non Vis created product , if you don't want to waste Vis)
Do a 01 part Real to 09 parts Lite and resell.
If you make the substitute Year duration there is likely to be no problem.
Sell discretely , or even give it away as Gifts to Nobles in consideration of later favours.
Unless the Venetians are paying spies in all countries to monitor sales ,
they will need to unlawfully scry on you to check.
Could be a good idea to check all saffron from Venice for Arcane Connections just in case. :wink:

There are obviously easier ways for a Covenant to make money ,
but sometimes you may need a specific product , like Saffron.

20

Nothing stops you putting stuff in saffron. People cut saffrom in the middle ages with tumeric in precisely the same way they cut saffron with tumeric now. The point here is that your stuff in saffron is as good as saffron, and that means you are going to alter its price.

They don't need to use spies, Ravenscroft: if you do this the price of saffron will fall, and they'll know immediately. I'd point out that scrying doesn't come into it. The Venetians that will grind you to dust don't even have to be magi. Just look at what these guys did to Constantinople and Genoa and the Pope and, later, the Turks and anyone else who got in their way.

I'm just saying that mucking with saffron, or alum, is like mucking with uranium in the modern day. -Everybody- want to know what you are doing with it. Everyone monitors who is producing it. People are willing to kill for even small uncontrolled supplies of it, because its a strategic commodity.

I'm serious: the Venetians are not going to be put off by simple little schemes and kidding about: when it hits their bottom line they are perfectly willing to destroy entire countries if necessary to ensure their domestic security, which they see as intimately tied to their trade. They have the finest manufacutary for armaments in the world, and they have the money to field very large client state armies for very long periods of time, and they have a reputation for destroying the people who join the enemy in their battles by formenting noble rebellions against them.

They do not care for the finer points of Hermetic Law, so even if Saffrom Lite is legal, if it affects the saffron monopoly, they will come and kill you very, very dead, because if you attack their money, you are attacking their way of life. You are, in their rhetoric, an enemy of the republic who threatens to return them to feudalism. You are a threat to freedom itself: and against those who would be tyrants, the republic has the right to defend itself to the knife.

Think of it like uranium and you start to see how they work.