Hello Sodales,
Currently, a treaty prevents mages to settle Covenants in North Africa for a few more years (assuming Saga in 1220). Once this interdiction falls, and aside any challenges to settle there, I wonder what could be possible names for:
a new Tribunal covering mostly the coast of modern Morocco and Algeria
a new Tribunal covering mostly the coast of modern Lybia and Tunisia
Personally, I am focusing mostly on the coast as the inner land might be too challenging to settle - but very likely that in a first phase, the border of such Tribunal will be fuzzy, akin to East and North borders of Novgorod Tribunal.
A little bit of google-fu and basic research from my side returned Alkebulan or Iphrikia/Aphrikia for the first one and possibly Kemet for the second one.
Ideally, I am looking for two names: one based on local terminology or culture and one Latin (akin to this map), as I am expecting some shenanigans between mages who wants to promote a strong latin-based Order, and those native from the location wanting their own identity.
I would simply call the Lybian and Tunisian Tribunal the African Tribunal and the Morrocan and Algerian one the Maghreb Tribunal. This would also show a difference between the two: the African one might be more Latin leaning, having had a large influx of ex-Roman Magi hoping to get more than 2 Vis per year whereas the Maghreb one is more "nativist", with a more gentle integration with Criamons and ex Misc Sahirs having recruited local magi. So you'd have self organisation vs colonisation, which would help give the two tribunals different vibes.
Now regarding the borders: the magi are not interested by big centres of populations (full of dominion) but by empty places (still have fairy/magic auras) so the desert while looking empty to us, would be the part of interest for the magi who collect Te Vis in the form of desert roses.
Which part ? The whole coast ?
There could be an initial attempt to have a single unified Tribunal until more covenants get founded.
I have to consider the impact of adding Tribunal(s) since it means more topics to be discussed during Grand Tribunal and a potential shift of the power balance since there will be more votes - so some house might have strong biased against or in favor, depending which one favors more the status quo or accelerates the change.
The name really depends on the story of the founding. If there is a burst of magi clustering around one site of history, culture, or supernatural power, a local name is likely, such as the Nile or Carthago, or whatever historical name you want to make a focus point of the story.
If the immigration is more scattered, and the required four tribunals for quorum are scattered from the Nile to Morocco, it could simply be called Africa, probably to splinter in the future, but not in the foreseeable future. There are not that many magi in the Order, so it is not likely to spawn enough settlers to found more than one tribunal in the first half century. Founding four covenants does not suffice, they need to have four that survive ...
I strongly think it depends on the origins and attitudes of the covenants of the founding Magi. A tribunal of Latin Colonists will likely use names of the former Roman Province. A Tribunal wanting to invoke early Roman might use one set of names:
If you wish to have Hermetic covenants and Tribunals at Northern Africa or just the southern coast of the Mediterranean, you need to take into account, that it was governed by Arabs. See BS&S, LotN or start with Albert Hourani's A History of the Arab People cp. 10 to 12.
So Hermetic magi and their Tribunals interact with a dominating Muslim and Arab culture, and it makes sense to have Tribunal names not utterly nostalgic of past empires.
Still, the name of the Roman Province Africa lives on in Arab Ifriqiya for the area of Tunisia: hence keeping the Roman name Africa for the western Tribunal among Latin covenants makes sense.
The name of the Roman Province Aegyptus soon turned to Arab Al Qibt - but that name did not stick to Muslims in Egypt. So the Arab name for Egypt became Miṣr. Still Agyptos should still be understood there and can form the base for Aegyptus as the name of the eastern Tribunal.
Carthaginian sounds good. I believe Ifriqiya is the Arabic rendering of Latin Africa (which only referred to the province in the middle of the north coast, not the whole continent as now). Other possibilities are Kemet Tribunal (after ancient Egypt), or Alexandria Tribunal, after the most important city in late Greco-Egyptian, Roman, and Medieval Egypt. You could also go with something more poetic, a la Stonehenge, like Giza or Luxor. I'd probably divide North Africa into two tribunals: one in Egypt and one in Carthage/Africa. Another possible name for the latter would be Tripolitania.
