Peripheral Code rulings in your saga

I'm curious what changes, additions, clarifications, etc have been made to the Peripheral Code in your saga? Or that you think would be sensible even if they ahve not occurred in play.

I want to borrow your experiences and suggestions so that I can use them for a Transitionalist Guernicus NPC in my game.

One really important addition to the Oath that eventually took place in our saga has been: "I shall not use my magic to rob my sodales of their free will". Note that without it it's perfectly ok to enslave the minds of your sodales as long as you do not spy on their affairs or limit their magical power.

Another issue that was widely debated was whether the various limitations of the Oath (against dealing with demons, interfering with mundanes etc.) should be limited to direct action, or should include indirect action as well - what if you bargain with a sorcerer who bargains with demons? Nothing conclusive came out of this one.

Finally, in our saga a non-canonical "secrecy clause" has been part of the peripheral code since the early decades of the Order: magi are not to reveal the existence or other details of the Order to outsiders, so mundanes and hedge wizards generally know nothing about the Order.

IMS the Isle of Mann is in swing between declaring for Hibernia or become an independent tribunal.

There has been a clause about people without the Gift being only possible as members of the OoH if they belong to house mercere. Otherwise they are only Amicus of the Order, but with no rights at all 8read: companion characters). The influx of ungifted gruagachan has forced that.

It has been declared that terraforming is legit, even if it upsets the mundanes, as long as you do have a valid contract with the mundanes that defends that that land is yours. Caused by massive terraforming of totally uninhabitable environments to make them a potent economic force in the region. Feudal relationships are also legit if you are only forced to provide a clearly identified mundane help, like "3 ships" or "20 spearmen". Mundane equipment is only allowed as per the selling of magic items to mundanes, as usual.

Stealing mundane resources has been declared stealing magical power in the British isles. However, if you are a covenant in loch leglean this does not apply to other loch leglean covenants, even if it does to covenants in other tribunals.

Cheers,
Xavi

Yeah but the instant you ask a question of them while they're under your control that's scrying. Or even if you hint you might want to know something and they tell you. Also if they can't use their magical power for what they want while under your control then again, you broke the code. Mind-controlling a magus without breaking the code is so hard it isn't really worth it to try.

Robbing free will would be limiting a magus magical power in my game: every minute you're mind controlling him, he cannot research. Or, if you mind-control him to do research, you're additionally scrying. It's still depriving him of his magical powers, as how do you know what kind of research he really wanted to do?

Yup.

Same here. It would not fly IMS that mind control is not depriv ing of magical power. otherwise the Sundering would not have been a hermetic crime "nah, I just smashed out their minds, but they can work as much magic as they want to..." :mrgreen:

Xavi

Every magus has a vote. Those who are the parens of one magus at least are magisters and have an additional vote. Archmagi have an additional vote.

Considering that my group went through a fairly active Tribunal last night here's what they had.

That should a magi become aware of a person of the age to become an apprentice and with the potential that they must take them as an apprentice or provide the details of the person to the Tribunal. That the list of all potential magi is maintained by Mercere House and that it be made available to all members of covenants in the Theban Tribunal.

That should a magi wish to declare a Wizards War on another in the Theban Tribunal that they must first submit to non-binding adjudication with a Quaesitor.

That all magi in the Theban Tribunal must pay a tax of 1 pawn of vis at every Tribunal.

That the Tribunal maintain a library of texts, these texts to be kept at the Trayus Academy (major Geurnicus covenant). All members of the Theban Tribunal shall receive access for 1 season per Tribunal period with additional seasons purchased at the cost of 1 pawn of vis per seasons access.

o That a Covenant Charter can legally be more limiting on magi than The Code, and The Code cannot then be used to bypass the Charter Oath by someone who freely, knowingly and legally entered and swore to such a Charter. (That would be a breaking of the Covenant Charter - the point is that such a more restrictive Charter is not seen as a breaking of the Code, as entering into such an agreement is seen to be voluntary and optional.)

This is critical for Covenant Charters which, for instance, wish to tax a small portion of all vis found by magi, or which require "seasons of service" to the Covenant (either of which could be interpreted as "depriving a member... of his magical power").

o That Tribunal Votes cannot be won, lost, or otherwise coerced or influenced by Certamen. (Risking the vote in a Certamen battle would not be "using the vote prudently", a violation of the Code, and thus is prohibited - see page 89).

Note that unless prohibited in the Charter, a Covenant vote can be wagered in Certamen. Some Tremere object to such inclusions... (but they don't have to join that Covenant, now, do they?)

o That a magi claims an apprentice when they register that claim with the Tribunal Quaesitores and/or Redcaps (similar to the process of registering a vis source, etc.). The yearly requirement of 1 season of training begins the season following that registration.

The minimum 1 season of training/year must be provided by the magi themselves, or via an equilateral fostering agreement.

Killing another magi's apprentice before the opening of the Arts is a minor offense; after the end of that season it is a serious offense.

Killing one's own apprentice without just cause before the opening of the Arts is seen as a minor offense to the Order, depriving all magi of potential apprentices and thus "magical power".

[i]This section includes a major change in the existing Code, referred to on page 106 of the Core book (under "Apprentices"), which we found flawed. The problem perceived was the time between the "finding and adopting" of a very young Gifted child and the "opening of the Arts", which is the RAW moment of "claiming the apprentice".

RAW, a prospective apprentice is no different than any other grog, regardless of training or Gift, until the Arts have been opened, but children cannot have their Arts opened until age 7, on average, so if you "adopt" a 5 year old (when many magi start their "training"), the Arts possibly may not be opened for 2 years or more, leaving the child as vulnerable as any inanimate property. Different spins on this change have been included variously in our sagas, but the gist is the same.

Because of this change, the "train themselves" rule prevents a mage from claiming hundreds of prospective apprentices and putting them thru a mundane training production line under tutors before deciding which one(s) to open the Arts for. Likewise the prohibition to killing one's own apprentices before determining their Arts (one of the few legal ways to get rid of an unwanted apprentice).

(Note - Sagas which prefer the "A mage can hire someone else to do the minimum training" approach should consider these possible complications and abuses.)

(Backstory: A young Tremere of Novgorod was claiming anything that hinted at The Gift, and then killing them if, on closer inspection, they did not meet "his high standards". After 5 apprentices died in 7 seasons in this fashion (in several instances an additional being adopted before a current one died - none were given the season of training, as none lasted more than 3 seasons), a 6th and 7th were "saved" by a Redcap, and soon were taken under the wing of young Bonisagi. At Tribunal, the Redcap was fined 1 vis (to the Tribunal) for "interfering", and the Tremere pronounced "not guilty", but this last interpretation appeared later that same Tribunal, and that Tremere did not adopt or claim another apprentice until the season after the next Tribunal (almost the first day after, in fact), and that choice was eventually raised to pass her gauntlet.

The tale of this incident had spread rapidly (as rapidly as Redcaps could spread it), and most Tribunals adopted variations on this last part, some even before the Novgorod Tribunal met - which House Mercere credits for the outcome in this case.)[/i]