Thanks! 
That way, I'll be able to correct my own future mistakes ^^
Sorry - been slammed a lot more than usual the past few days at work - I've got Abdul (Grog) written up, and still trying to write up his response - just haven't had time to post. Will hopefully be able to either late today or after work Friday evening.
Added the Covenant Charter to the wiki. Basically transcribed the charter from the Covenants book, and added the stuff that Amul said was different or had been added to our charter.
Wasn't sure where to put the members' "signatures" (I'm thinking between the "Oath of Covenant" and "Membership," where it says "Given under our hand." I also put some xxxx for places I didn't know (namely, the date that the charter was done, and the authorizing Quaesitor's name).
It's amazing the lengths I will go to to avoid working on stuff sometimes.
Just a heads-up, my net-access and book-access will be greatly curtailed starting on Thursday, until the end of April. I'll be checking in on the forums primarily from my phone.
In general, my travel season will be greatly affecting my net-access over the summer, so expect much shorter posts from me.
Given the few RP posts lately and my soon-to-be-diminished net access for the rest of the month, I am going to move the story forward in a few days to the first Council meeting.
If anybody is waiting on me for a response to something, please nudge me.
I was just waiting to see if Celestria and whatever maid (or Rebecca) she has in tow finds Maria or somebody else? (If it's Maria, that works, because I have this conversation in my head between Maria and whomever about the situation that would drag Celestria's Infamy over the channel).
Also as to whether Cygna's two-buildings-connected-by-breezeway idea would fly, and if so if that's doable here.
If not, she's going to have to either settle for one of the existing buildings to settle into or have one built for her by...someone.
And (as an aside) - if Cygna's able to memorize the route going from the Left Side to the Right (roll of 7 + Int 4 + Art of Memory 1 =12), will that work going the other way, or will she have to use a locus for each direction?
Other than that, still waiting for Maria's dealing with Captain Abdul (and probably Terrence, if we want to have shield grogs do tdy under him when they're not busy protecting their magi)
Hiems grogs weren't doing anything special.
Hiems is still in limbo waiting for serrano to answer him.
Sorry , you should have reminded me sooner.
It isn't just me being lazy , i do have a serious heart condition that affects me.
Oh 
And no problem, I just thought you were occupied otherwise. I'm barely holding on myself 
Would I be correct in assuming that the Christian church is currently unmanned, and probably hasn't had a vicar since Las Navas?
Also: still waiting on Captain Abdul and Terrence/Maria and who Celestria runs into.
If the actual local church is vacant , The Church can be used to create it .
That'd be great!
Crap. My response got lost in the work shuffle. Sorry, working on it.
Correct. Church service is currently being handled (poorly) by a grape-stomper who took up the job when the resident priest went to with the "army."
I have not read The Church, and will be unlikely to do so anytime soon, given my upcoming workload. What does this entail?
insert sad trombone
Well...apparently the reason we can't find anything but hotel stuff is that there's not a whole lot out there. All I could find was photos of the outside.
So...I punted. I kicked the question over to a writers'/roleplayers' LiveJournal community I'm in that just helps with research and answering niggling little questions like this.
So, to sum up what I found out from them:
- The building we've seen was actually built in 1873; however,there was a castle there in 1246, but it was in ruins by 1573. (which my own research had already indicated).
- Spanish castles were pretty similar in style and layout to other European castles, so if you have some "generic" European castle plans to play with, that would probably work.
- There were a couple of websites (actually, a website and a book on gutenberg.org) that looked pretty awesome. Lots of pictures and stuff to play with. For some reason, I'm really fond of this plate, which shows a central patio surrounded by a two-story building,with a balcony and arcade, and several apartments or rooms for people to live or work in.
Sorry I couldn't find more useful info. I hope this stuff helps.
Similar to Covenants.
Choose size to get build points , a parish church gets 250 build points.
Select Boons and Hooks.
Resources to buy with build points are: Books , Enchanted Items , Relics , Specialists and Vis.
Enchanted Items and Vis are not mandatory. Magic items are donated , found or purchased , not created.
A church cannot be run by some "grape-stomper" , even if extemely pious.
He would need to be a cleric of some kind at least.
Minor Orders: Doorkeeper , Lector , Exorcist , Acolyte
Major Orders: Sub-deacon , Deacon , Priest.
Round one: Fight!
californian crime-bustingOn a totally unrelated note, may I advise you to check out the future of ? (Advice: A sanity check might be required)
Yes, I'm sure the Church would be horrified to discover this. However, there is no one else more qualified in the covenant grounds, and it seems no one has contacted anyone for a replacement. Perhaps, if one of the magi discover this, they might bring it up in Council?
At this point, I feel like the saga is heavy on number crunching and light on roleplay. Let's see how important the church becomes to our story before rendering it in this kind of detail.
On the other hand, since I understand the appeal of a brand new book, if you want to figure out the points for the Castilblanco church, or one of the other nearby towns, go crazy, and post it on the wiki.
I'm not sure this is entirely accurate, even in period. I know that today, there are entirely too many churches that don't have a parish priest (usually having a circuit priest, for lack of a better word, one who performs the liturgy at several parishes). It's easy for me to believe that it was not unheard of for a priest to pass away (or be otherwise incapable of performing his duties), and for some time to pass before the bishop became aware of the situation and assign a priest to take over the church.
Plus, of the seven Holy Sacraments, a priest is only required for two that would impact the community on a regular basis. Off the top of my head:
- Baptism can technically be performed by any Christian in an emergency. Usually, this is for a stillborn or an infant who dies soon after birth, or someone who undergoes a “deathbed conversion.”[/]
[]Confirmation must be performed by a priest (or higher), but (at least today) is usually done either immediately after baptism (for converts) or after Confirmation Class. Thus, there's not really any immediate need for a priest. The laity can ensure the confirmed knows what he needs to know for confirmation, and just have the ceremony done by the priest when he passes through.[/]
[]Eucharist is the one that absolutely requires a priest. However, most masses are actually Liturgy of the Word and not Liturgy of the Eucharist (only difference being whether or not Communion is served). If I remember right, in period God was seen as a horribly wrathful God, and people were terrified to take the Christ into their body because of this. It got to the point where the Church made a law that you had to take the Eucharist at least once a year because otherwise, nobody would. (I can't remember if that was the Second Vatican Council or some time earlier). So, since in period most people would be fine not taking the Eucharist (unlike today), not having a priest for this might not be seen as a Bad Thing. - Reconciliation also requires a priest. Technically, anyone can hear confession, but only a priest can grant absolution. In period, I think, this was normally done once per lifetime, usually when a person was about to die (or was believed to be about to die). Again, not having a priest for this would usually be No Big Deal, I think.[/]
[]Anointing of the Sick requires a priest, but is usually done only when someone is extremely ill or is in grave danger due to old age.[/]
[]Holy Orders, when someone becomes a priest, nun, monk, etcetera, would actually be performed by bishop, abbot or abbess (I think, on the last two – I'm not sure if those have to be done by the bishop as well).[/]
[]Matrimony is technically performed by the couple; the priest's only official role is as a witness.
Hunh. Well, looking over the list, it kinda looks like we actually don't have to have a resident priest. As long as the “grape-stomper” is pious enough, maybe with True Faith(?) and is theologically sound, we should be fine.
Oh, and the one thing I had to look up was the name for the Anointing of the Sick. And while looking that up, I happened across a note that the canon law decreeing that every Christian receive Reconciliation at least once a year was passed by the Fourth Lateran Council...in 1215. So, in our timeframe, there's no rule saying how often (or rarely) you took the sacrament.
That being said, I'm sure we have enough “pious” magi that it would behoove us to fetch ourselves a priest.