For my saga, I am taking elements of the Ex Misc lineage "Donatores Requietis Aeternae" and creating a mystery cult. Donatores have the major hermetic flaw: Restriction (cannot cast spells on consecrated ground). This is one of the elements I want to preserve, making it an ordeal.
My question is, how would you define "consecrated ground?" I'd like to have a clear unambiguous definition for the player. I don't yet have RoP:D or "the church," which might clarify this.
I know what "consecrated ground" means to me in the real world, as a person of faith, but I'm not sure I could precisely define the boundaries of the "consecrated ground" even there. Sure, the christian chapel is included, but what about the offices, rec room, gym, and parking lot?
Saying "within any divine aura" seems too harsh. Saying "within the primary worship room" seems like it could be easily avoided. I don't have much experience with hermetic restriction flaws though.
Please no "serf's parma." I've got a rules-lawyer player, but he'll accept anything if its in a book. Sure, I could just exercise some SG perrogative to define it, but, this being everyone's first ArM5 saga, we're trying to stick with RAW as much as possible - house rules are for the next saga.
Same as Tellus here: IIRC it is a specific ritual of blessing, that includes walking the perimeter (or having a perimeter, at least). Consecrated ground would be church grounds and graveyards, even if some old graveyards might not be consecrated. If you want a larger area to be affected by the restriction, everything within the walls of a monastery might be counted as consecrated ground.
IIRC consecrated ground was the area where you could not kill a criminal. The area of exclusion of mundane authority and where the Church was supreme. This is why the killing of Thomas Beckett (by the side of an altar) was so heinous: because it was in consecrated ground. I might be way off track here, though.
RoP: Divine, page 11: For a Christian site to be consecrated, it must be blessed by the celebrant [priest] or be built over the relics of a saint. From the eighth century, the Church has a particular formula for an altar’s consecration, where relics are ceremonially interred beneath the church’s altar.
Also, from Catholic Culture.Org: Consecrated Ground: Any place or space that has been liturgically blessed, or where some sacred object such as a church is built or has stood. But most commonly, consecrated ground means a single grave or several graves or a whole cemetery in which faithful Christians are buried.
So basically, any church, chapel or graveyard would count.
Assuming they are active and haven't been de-consecrated or desecrated, of course!
There is probably a bit of local / context dependent variation. Certainly the body and interior of the church should almost always be consecrated.
The church grounds and graveyard are probably usually consecrated ground, but it would depend on the circumstances. You need to get the bishop to visit to consecrate ground. So, for example, a town suffering a mass casualty event might not have the luxury of waiting for the bishop to visit before opening up a new graveyard.
I think that usually only the immediate vicinity of a chapel (if that) would be consecrated ground. For example, if a manor house has a chapel in it, only the room (at best) that contains the chapel would be consecrated.
On the other hand, it would probably be normal for something like an entire monastery to be built on consecrated ground.