The point was it's not a mystery cult,just a cult. Rituals are public !
Indeed, they practice openly. They may do an invocation at Tribunal meetings. It's likely that there are Tremere who are part of this "cult" too. They may play lip service like Ophelia, rather than being true believers. The true believers are probably the contingent that get recruited to the Neo-Mercurians.
It appears Adauli might be out, despite our offers to help him. How long shall we give him, and should we consider recruiting another player?
I'm going to plow forward for now and get it up and running. After that we can see about adding new people.
So I've looked through the Mysteries, True Lineages, Against the Dark, and HoH: Mystery Cults looking for indication about what the Tremere have against mystery cults and the closest thing I could find is they don't like gods. In fact, I did find a mystery cult explicitly working with Tremere to produce fectors. Complete with initiation scripts for the various foe arts.
So I'm wondering where exactly this is coming from? Is this something not mentioned in any book, but campaign specific? And then in turn what exactly are their other objections/sticking points? Do they just not like magi gaining power in ways they can't use? Do they not like secrecy? Although that would seem odd, since secrecy is pretty well protected by the Code. Sanctums and scrying laws. Are they just going to fabricate some objection because they are corrupt? But that would seem counter to there whole caring about the Code...
It's one of those things that you have to read between the lines. A Tremere in a Mystery Cult is difficult, because he effectively has an allegiance to someone outside of his House. This is problematic from a chain of command perspective, because his superiors within the House will question his loyalty and motives, and his superiors within the Mystery Cult will view him with suspicion because they think he will share these secrets with his House. Magical knowledge, by and large should be shared, this is the raison d'être for the Order. Since the Sundering, the Tremere have served the Order unfailingly. Mystery Cults can be seen as the antithesis of their current philosophy, as expressed through their modern, unofficial motto: "Obedience is of the highest benefit." Some Mystery Cults are useful, especially House Verditius. I could see similar benefit to other Mystery Cults, if it allows them to produce works that they otherwise couldn't and could be used to benefit the Order.
The Philosophers of Rome is probably the very worst cult to choose for a Tremere saga. They are described as being exceptionally secretive, and their goal, or the goal of the ones higher in the chain is extremely selfish and personal. Not only that, it's a waste of a huge amount of resources, both personnel and material.
I can certainly see why they wouldn't want their troops in most cults. That said, I don't see them particularly pro-free flow of knowledge. Note how they will NOT be sharing their books with Eve. Secondly most mystery cults comes way closer to "Obedience" than most of the other Houses. Most magi don't obey anyone except the Code. Not sharing and not obeying Tremere is something every magi does. Secondly rites that benefit one magi, say a rite to grant personal Vis source or the other various mystery virtues Eve has benefit the Order just as much as a magi studying their arts. I can see why the Tremere might not like it, but that springs from pure jealousy along the lines of "whaa! They have it better than us."
None of those complaints strike me as remotely pragmatic. They know they can't boss other magi around and expect something for nothing. They know other magi will try and improve their power.
Waste of resources? Every rite pays pack many-fold. Especially the final goal. The new god can be in every covenant doing research, making vis, or guiding new people on the path to ascension! [/Eve's optimism] I can see why they would be annoyed with the Philo's of Rome, especially if they found out about the whole "UNLIMITED COSMIC POWER!" at the end of the tunnel. Hypocritical their complaints would be, but complaints they would have. Even before that they don't like worship.
Everybody fights, no one quits. Everyone in Tremere is a soldier. There might be the rare exception here and there. The Obedience of most Mystery Cults comes as a necessity of the cultist to be obedient as a means of accessing ever greater amounts of power. This isn't exactly how the House operates. Tremere obey their superiors, by and large. If they don't, they don't stay Tremere for very long.
It is a big stretch to say that Eve's personal vis source is a benefit to the Order, if the only way to access it is via the Mystery Cult. Some might call that too high of a price to pay. And then there's the fact that no one outside the cult should really know about this. So what the Tremere see in Eve is a Verditius who doesn't make anything. Of what uses is she?
They don't want you as a god. The very structure of the House is such that not everyone can ascend. You need to have worshipers that can bring you back. You've consistently ignored this. So, yes, it is a huge waste of resources, because the benefits accrue to only a few, and not a large group. I can say with some degree of confidence, based on discussions about general stuff with jebrick, that you will never convince the Tremere to join the Philosophers of Rome en masse. That is the only way you could realize anything close to what you are describing. It isn't that power is unlimited, it is that vast power is limited only to a select few.
She makes better tracti than very nearly anyone else. Maybe a few mortals can equal her, and only transformed humans can beat her. Its quite possible she IS the best. And then she's willing to sell them, with full copying rights, to House Tremere. For the price of roughly a rook for vis. (Some books, some material goods.) And she'll totally make stuff if they pay her. Preferably in more books. If they can tolerate the whole Gnosticism and Hubris I'm sure they would take 7 Eves.
Actually, I don't think you need anyone to call you back. When it talks about creating aspects there is no mention of needing worshipers. Its just something the Daimon can do. More to the point nothing in RAW prevents an aspect invoking the pact of another Daimon, or helping another mortal ascend. Once Eve is ascended who cares what the other people think? They'll all be too desperate to ascend to complain. But yes, I'm sure House Tremere doesn't want anyone except for themselves as gods.
So the Tremere are whining about other people getting cooler toys?
"This highly secretive group, explicitly non-Christian, is perhaps one of the most deeply hidden Mystery Cults within the Order of Hermes." This is how the description of the Philosophers starts.
That's why I'm so surprised about Eve trying to put the 'right to perform initiations' and so forth right in her contract. She should be burying her affiliation in the deepest corner of her mind ! Any self-initiation she intends to perform will be done in the utmost secrecy ! She might, carefully, over a period of years, draw an interested candidate or two into the cult, no more ! As for her ascension, that's a long way off, and she should probably move again before it comes to that: surely she's not coming in the Transylvania Tribunal and expecting to make it her permanent residence ?
Also, I highly doubt the Transylvania Tribunal explicitly forbids Mystery Cults. It's too risky, politically: the Order was founded on the premise that every magus should be free to pursue his research without interference, as long as he in turn doesn't interfere with others. The Tremere might have other ideas, but they are in no position to dictate to the Order as a whole. But they don't need to, the Tremere can harass anyone they want out of Transylvania until the magus leaves of his own free will, and the primus of House Tremere doesn't need any Tribunal to kick an offending Tremere off the House.
Now that you mention it, I haven't really analyzed that very well... But even allowing for it to work the way you think it should, you're turning her into a book pump? Sure, the House will love that. They can probably feed you with books, raising your Art scores well enough and writing books until you're done and then cast you out when they've grown tired of your other antics. You're doing a pretty good job at a player character who can't do anything very well, except stay in the lab. Those aren't particularly fun to play, unless you want stories of how out of her league she is when she's not in her lab. I have no idea if that's the case, here.
There's a difference between having a goal for a character, and a goal for a character that overrides all good judgment. PbP games fail, or slow down, or people drop out. Do you honestly think that you're going to get Eve to the point where she ascends in the scope of this saga? Even if we go 30 or 50 years of game time in this saga, I don't see Eve doing it in that time, or if she does, she does it off stage, outside of the game, and again, as jebrick says she becomes an NPC.
As to the worshipers, I believe I quoted this once before. I thought you had acknowledged it, too.
If Eve manages to ascend without worshipers, she won't even be an NPC in the saga anymore. The effect is the same, Eve exits the saga. In the meantime, your character needs to survive that long, and she needs to be able to do some things, in and out of the lab. If she's a book pump, that's pretty boring. Even the Bonisagus I made with Unstructured Caster an Rigid Magic could do stuff outside of the lab, and he was only 10 years post gauntlet when he entered play. Granted, he was amazing in the lab, but he still did stuff and could do stuff outside of it.
[Kosh]
You do not understand. But you will.
[/Kosh]
Basically, The Tremere believe that magi just working for themselves does not benefit the Order as a whole. Although this may not be a good analogy, think of a theoretically pure form of Communism. The central government controls the resources and decides on the projects to be done and allocates the resources. Unlike every other Covenant in ME, you are not independent and on your own. Each Covenant and Oppida strives for the benefit of all the others. You will not be poor but it is unlikely that you will be wealthy as well. If someone declares WW on you or your Oppidum, you can expect the Tremere to support you ( as long as you are good fellows). They will fund your research as long as it benefits the Tribunal. As a result of this you will be asked to do tasks for the benefit of the Tribunal. I call then adventures. You will call them a pain in the @$$ most of the time.
As to Secret/Mystery Cults: It is not that the Tremere hate them and will crush them all. From the Tremere perspective many of them are inefficient and a waste of resources. And yes, the Philo of Rome would be near the top of that list. House mystery cults are put up with as long as they are not controlling and religious in nature.
Please ! The Four Mystery Houses are entirely different from Mystery Cults ! There membership is known to all, their aims are ... as open as the aims of any other House, including Tremere, their beliefs and traditions are as well known as that of most Houses. And the only House with a history of being controlling is Tremere, so there !
More seriously, the Tremere once got caught trying to take control of the Order, and if they start making noise about some Houses (Mystery or not) not pulling their weight, they'll remind everyone of the fact. They may effectively control the Transylvania Tribunal, but they still have to answer to the Grand Tribunal, and I'm sure they are much too politically savvy to do anything like that !
Oh, or did you mean mystery cults inside the Tremere House ?
Actually, in this saga, because it is the same premise as Bibracte, the Tremere [strike]are the only[/strike] are probably the primary reason that House Guernicus hasn't taken over the Order. The characters (or not all of them) probably don't know this, but the players should understand this. Basically it takes the idea the House Guernicus had prepared a hit squad to take Tremere down (which is stated in HoH:TL) and once they did that, they never let it die. There's more to it than that, and none of it is secret from the players, it can all be read in the Bibracte forum, if you want to go through ~20,000 posts to find it. 
I mean Mystery Cults within Tremere.
She won't get done for... let see, 16 in arts can come from a summae. Five in abilities. And we have conc, finesse, pen, parma, (realm) lore, M.T. and they probably like abilities like survival and athe too. So we are looking at 75+ books. That isn't getting finished. And then on top of that Eve can probably make a summae that blows the rest out of the water if she studies far enough. She'll never really finish.
Probably not, but player goals are have a fun time, maybe have Eve give herself some cool virtues. Eve's goal is of course immortality at a minimum, with a stretch goal of mass ascension of the Order, and mass immortality for non-Gifted.
As to the worshipers, I believe I quoted this once before. I thought you had acknowledged it, too.
One: Eve can totally do stuff out of lab! She has a decent array of blasting spells. Sniping, mundane clearing, pit opening, and the full range might strippers. Including a demon cleansing spell. Plus flight, and carrying junk. And finally basic crafting abilities. Then of course, she has re/co+te spirits to mimic spont casting of those areas.
Two: You need worshipers to gain power. That isn't in question. I disagree that you need worshipers to return to the mortal coil. Oh, and you need someone to help you ascend. Like a carefully manufactured apprentice. Who if the game goes that far is a perfect new character for me to play! Who will also have convenient virtues like theurgic familiar, and easy access to a Daimon she can bind!
She's a member of a mystery cult! Everyone knows that. House Verdi! Of course, she needs her initiations protected.
I just looked at Eve's method for getting those high quality books. A very strict reading (which is the way I read the rules) would not allow such high qualities, certainly not for every. single. book.
Here is the text for Essential Virtue from Realms of Power:Magic.
First it says rolls. SQ is not a roll. Remember I said a strict reading. Second it says certain situations, not all situations. You are using it in a way that applies to everything that Eve writes, all the time, with no element of chance, which is, again, not consistent with a reading of the rules. A reasonable alternative is that the texts she rights get the benefit if they are based on her obsession with ascending. So some Creo and Corpus texts might receive this benefit. Almost anything written for the benefit of her Mystery Cult, too.
Finally, how did Eve acquire this virtue. Such a virtue should only be acquired by circumstance of having visited the magic realm. It needs to be expounded upon, but I do see some synergy with her obsession for ascending, and so long as the trait is more limited, I'm generally OK with it.
Essential traits are described on page 54. Notice the "see Essential Traits, below"?
It doesn't even mention "rolls" explicitly. Did you actually read that section like the virtue told you to?
Secondly it does NOT apply to all circumstances. It applies to circumstances with books. Like writing books. It does not apply to use of incantation, or invocation. It does not apply to teaching. It does not apply to bargaining, or making a compelling argument. It does not apply to using intrigue. It does not apply to writing a letter to get a change in the Church doctrine. Arguably a strict reading would say, it shouldn't apply to looking something up in a library as that's an int roll, but thought that wasn't too much of a stretch. Also its a virtue. I don't see why it needs a special explanation.
Sure, but your idea of fun is breaking my suspension of disbelief, just a little bit.
I thought jebrick already tagged your idea of flight with the metal shoes as unlikely, or incredibly difficult at the very least.
Her blasting spells work well against mundanes, but will be largely ineffective against any being with magic resistance.
What demon cleanings spell does she have? Regardless, the spell that would cleans a demon is going to have issues related to her problems with might strippers detailed below.
Ophelia has 3 realms of might strippers, too. Arguably all better than Eve's, higher level, and more penetration. All of hers can be multiple cast, as well. Might 20 creatures have a better than average chance of being defeated, or at least severely wounded in the first round, wounded to the point of running away is something the creature/buing probably thinks long and hard about.
It's pretty much explicitly stated that he has to be summoned back by someone. If not worshipers, then whom? Who else will even know of Eve's existence as a being of Magic. Much more likely is that anyone outside of the cult will just think she succumbed to Final Twilight.