[tab][/tab][tab][/tab][tab][/tab]The Covenant of Meru Mudi
[tab][/tab]Meru Mudi is the name of the Covenant. It sounds in Latin a lot like Merum Mundi, meaning Pure World (or Clear World). Cunning Anastaj when pitching the call for magi to the West deliberately lets the misconception stand. In actuality the name is Vlach for 'Apple Mountain'.
[tab][/tab]The covenant is situated inside the Vikos gorge, just past its springs (see here). In that spot on the south side of the gorge is a small inclined valley that never sees the direct light of the sun, a 'shadow spot' ( Its walls are aligned NNE and ENE, facing the Towers). There is vegetation and trees of all kinds on both slopes, especially different kinds of apple trees, hence the name apple-valley. At the back of this small valley, framed on three sides by cliffs going up, is a lone hill. Grasses and flower plants abound, but no bushes and only one tree grows there. At the top of the hill is a majestic apple tree, old yet robust. At the foot of that hill the covenant has its buildings. On the east side a dry stream bed flows down to Voidomatis, it only sees flowing water during heavy rains or at melting season.
[tab][/tab]In the heart of the covenant squats a short, fat tower that doesn't quite reach the height of the apple tree behind it. This looks more like a Romaic rotunda than an actual tower. Made of non-endemic purplish-red stone, its a magically erected edifice, well constructed but bulky. Large windows grace it and two bands of blue glazed tiles run around it, each row marking one level. These have sporadically sculpted images of twin fishes or round loaves of bread, both Christian symbols. The tower itself has two storeys above ground, but the ground floor is actually lower, with stairs going down at the entrance. A large basement with a root cellar that has its own entrance completes the tower. (for an architectural description see later).
[tab][/tab]Around the tower 7 outbuildings are found. Five of them are shabby, wooden affairs to house teamsters and servants (though most of them would probably move to the main building during the winter months). A slightly better built stone cottage with a stone half courtyard, houses the blacksmith and his family. A long, rectangle stone building serves the combat grogs as barracks, with a small separate room for an leader, and a commons rooms that also has their gear. There is no palisade or defensive wall.
1215: The covenant has added some more structures. A large house was conjured on the front of the central hill, on the opposite site of the covenant. It went extended modifications to make it liveable as most not hard wood surfaces were conjured out of balsa (including chimneys and fireplaces). One maga and her family currently reside there. Another long stone building was built just outside the limits of the aura, next to the dry gultch and below the path leading to the Rotunda. Positioned as a rectangle with its smaller sides facing the Rotunda and the exit of the ravine, it has very few and small windows and blends with the grey rocks around it. It now houses a smithy and an alchemical workshop. Of lesser import, a wooden paddock for two horses was built next to the barracks.