Yeah, I do remember that there was a reserved sanctum for a gifted Mercere.
We do have one empty lab reserved for the Mercere, and Fedora occupies a lab she is not actually using (we should stat that out and take into consideration it is unused or has special specific use maybe). As for space to build new labs in, we are out of twoers (I think), but we have plenty of space in and under buildings that we can remodel and build out new labs from scratch. The space is not unlimited, but I think we can crowd up to two dozen magi and their attendants into the place. It would be tight though. As for the islands. well there is no truly infinite space anywhere, but it is effectively unlimited. You can build a shack off in the wilderness away from town. No magic aura but no dominion either, and the magical activity there will resonate with the regio network and draw an aspect of that shack to the circle on the top regio layer of Sa Dragonera.
I like PoB's idea. Seven seasons as a Provisional Journeyman, three years thereafter counts as a single service (one time only), and seven years & three services altogether as a Journeyman to qualify for elevation to Master status.
Note that this is all pedantic. Roberto, the guy I am playing, actually prefers his spot in Ibiza and will probably want to stay there even after he becomes a Master one day. He might rail against being told where he must stay, but if given a free choice he would stay in Ibiza. If he ever lost the Gentle Gift and returned back to normal, that might change things. But for now he is happy.
Would this mean the journeymen are free to return to Andorra after seven seasons? If so, that seems pretty brief to me. Considering we're running stories over the span of two years at the moment, it means their time there might not even come up in a story. Why not combine the first two - three years as a Provisional Journeyman, after which their rank is official and the three years counts as a Master service? Or consider the first three years confirmation of their Journeyman status (and not a Master service), then give them the option of returning to Andorra immediately or staying in the Balearics, with the first three 'extra' years counting as a Master service?
That's true for some of us, but not for Fleur or Lucas (or Antoine, depending on how his membership shakes out). What I'm looking to do is define when they can make their moves.
Here's the problem. The Charter as written states that a Pledge (a normal Pledge, not a Balearic Isles recruit) must wait 7 seasons before their peitiion for Journeyman status is considered. Thus a normal, run of the mill Pledge can become a Journeyman in full standing in 7 seasons. I don't want Balearic Isle recruits to have to wait longer than that, otherwise there is less incentive to go there.
As for "free to return to Andorra," I didn't say that. They are Journeymen in full standing after 7 seasons and can request a sanctum relocation from the Masters' Council. There is absolutely no obligation (as was discussed ad nosium before) for the Council to grant such a move request. And there is pretty good incentive to stay at least 3 years in order to get one step closer to being a master.
In game, Solomon will vehemently oppose any situation that grants them the option of moving to Andorra whenever they want. As far as he's concerned, the Covenant is required to give them space for a sanctum (and pay, lab equipment, etc). We have, and thus there is no more obligation. Lucas is a special case, since we made an agreement with House Mercere. And if one of them makes Master, obviously their clout will be stronger and will likely earn enough votes to move to Andorra proper. Other than that, it's up to them to prove in game why being at Andorra proper vice the Balearic Isles is a benefit to the covenant as a whole.
Yep, as a rules type of guy, I'd like to have some rules hammered out.
Ah, I see. I haven't looked closely at the Pledge rules in a while. Seven seasons is the way to go then.
I understand Solomon's stance, but I'm also looking at this from a player/metagame perspective. It looks (to me) like we have four permanent residents of the Balearics - Pere, Acutus, Roberto, and Arnau (not a magus, but close enough for my point). In each case, either the player has stated the character has no interest in moving to Andorra or it's unlikely (again, to me) that they'll have a compelling reason to do so. That leaves the characters of our other new players - Fleur, Lucas, maybe Antoine - stuck in the Balearics until the other characters/players let them come back. As one of the new folks pointed out, that kinda sucks.
Look at it this way - several of us joined the saga 18 months ago and our characters were immediately made Masters and allowed to determine our own fates. Now some new players have joined and they're not being given that option, but are actually required to take inferior options until the other players/characters decide to let them sit at the grownup table. From a character perspective this is entirely fair and makes perfect sense. From a player perspective, I'm not sure. I get that Ars is designed to have characters of different power levels and authority levels interacting. I'm not objecting to the Master/Journeyman arrangement we've put together. What I'm objecting to is the new characters being stuck in an inferior situation with no clear idea of when they can improve that situation. I want to set an upper cap on the time they're required to live in the Balearics so they know when the light at the end of the tunnel will actually arrive.
For what it's worth, Antoine will indeed be petitioning for Andorra proper, seeing as that's where Vulcanus is. The Balearic situation is unlikely to impinge on him; unless he decides that it's monstrously unfair that he should wait when these other magi don't. Which he probably won't.
I thought that was his plan, but I'm including him because I don't know how the council will respond to his request. We may end up requiring him to live in the Balearics anyway.
That would be mean.
But I am glad some people are looking at the situation from a perspective outside of the game. There are some out-of-game circumstances to consider. First, the Journeyman/Master concept we have as is was intended, originally, to allow current players to have two magi. One older and one younger and of lower status. Also, I do not have a story plan specifically for Sa Dragonera. Someone else was supposed to run that and they bailed. I just picked up the broken pieces and salvaged the cool characters we made. Which is not to say I don't have ideas. I always have ideas.
I also want you guys to run stories more often. So I'm a gonna tell ya what I'm gonna do...
(and you know when Markoko types out yokle slang, he has a crazy idea 
)
I am not going to run any stories about Sa Dragonera. I'll manage things, and stories may pass through there and/or involve those characters. But as far as I am concerned it is just another part of Andorra Covenant. Which is why the question of residency is irrelevant to me. Journeyman status is something so much more than where you are allowed to reside.
You guys want specific Sa Dragonera stories, the you got to run them. I'll coach you and play in them. For example, Silveroak wants a story where Fleur explores the regio of her sanctum and investigates the haunting. I don't feel like doing that. Nothing inspires me. BUT, I will totally let Silveroak run that as a story and play a grog or something. I'll give Silveroak some encouragement and coaching and inside data and brainstorm or whatever it takes to get other people to beta SG a story now and again.
As for rulings, Fixer is the Rules Shark. Over the years I have learned to yield more and more to his wisdom. So you will get a fair deal when it comes to what you can do with your story.
I have an exceedingly strong urge to relocate Vulcanus to the Balearic Islands for some reason, and give Antoine his spot. There has always been a living-breathing player character of a Verditius or a Valdarian magus in the covenant castle. That is the way things should be.
I just realized our castle doesn't have a name. Hmmmm....
Why would Vulcanus move to the Islands? Well, according to the rules for building your own Quarter, you can have a maximum Aura od 3, but here you can have an Aligned Aura of your choosing. A Magic Aura of 3 Aligned with Terram gives him an Aura of 6 for Terram projects. Why wouldn't he do it? IT'S-ONE-POINT-HIGHER!!!!!
Still, our castle needs a name.
I feel as if I’m coming across as the guy who wants to “screw over” the new players, which is completely not true, so I want to explain where I’m coming from.
I’ve been gaming for somewhere around 28 years now, starting with the good old D&D Red Basic boxed set (for those old enough to remember that). I’ve played countless different games over that time, but for about the last 5-6 years spent most of my time playing World of Darkness (old and new) as well as a plethora of indie/story games. But I think what is really coloring my thoughts on this particular subject is my time LARPing Vampire (yep, I was one of those guys 
)
When you play a “standard” tabletop game, or really just about any game, all of the players are generally of the same power level. Even in a tabletop Vampire game the players tend to be on the same level, just with a vast array of NPCs more and less powerful than them. But in a LARP (at least a decent sized one of 20+ players) the goal is to have as few NPCs as possible, with players playing everyone from the Prince on down to the lowliest neonate. We are basically in that situation here, where the covenant masters aren’t NPCs, but PCs themselves. What this means is you have to have some in-game reason that the powerful characters don’t just slaughter/enslave all of the other PCs, and both Vampire (with its various rules) and Ars Magica with the Oath have that built in.
The other important aspect, that some LARP groups do better than others, is letting the less powerful characters handle the “plot”. When something occurs that needs investigating or someone needs to deal with the mortal authorities, or whatever, the first instinct is often to have the most powerful character go deal with it. That’s not fun for the less powerful characters, because they’re stuck never doing anything, and it’s likely not even fun for the powerful character because there is a good chance it was too easy for him. That’s where the players of the Prince and his court should “task out” missions to the less powerful characters. In the best games, I’ve seen various political factions within the powerful characters take younger characters “under their wing” and send them on opposing missions, with the younger characters fighting the wars for the powerful characters. This lets everyone be involved in the story. This is something I think we need to work on in this game. I realize the City of Brass mission is a “level 20 module” so it’s not really an option, but when the “level 5 module” is presented to the masters; they should delegate them down to the Journeymen because the masters have more important things to do. The Giza “sub-mission” is a perfect example of that; sending journeymen (Roberto and Lucas) to deal with something the masters can’t be bothered with.
The other thing I’ve come to learn from playing all of these non-D&D games is that “conflict is good”; and I don’t just mean conflict with monsters or NPC bad guys. Any good movie or TV show has conflict of some sort between the main characters; maybe not all the time or in every episode, but it is there. Without that internal conflict things become stale. What I am trying to do by not saying “you can all move back to Andorra on X date” is to introduce the potential for some conflict that could make for a good story. The example I gave earlier about Fleur having to make a political deal with Pere to get a residence at Andorra (which in my mind could be an interesting story) would never occur if it was already mandated that they return after a certain time period. At the end of the day that is my goal, not screwing anybody over. It just happens that the way our in-game documents (specifically the Charter) are written supports that goal.
I also kind of look at this like character death. In every game I play, I generally make it a point to let the DM/GM/ST/SG or whatever know that I’m okay with my character dying. I say that because I want to know there is a punishment for failure (or bad dice luck ) and it makes me play the character more realistically knowing that death is always a possibility. This is similar in my mind. If Silveroak knows that Fleur is going to be allowed back at Andorra proper after some specific amount of time (because we’ve all agreed to it out of game) then there is very little incentive for Fleur to try to work political angles to “butter up” the masters, or make the other journeymen look bad, or whatever. It reduces the incentive for generating conflict.
Anyway, having now written over a page in Word, I realize I have been rambling too long. At the end of the day, I’ll go along with the troupe, I just wanted to try and articulate my thoughts a little better. I’m not quite sure I succeeded, but I tried.
I like your ideas and totally support your point as far as higherarchy and obligations of status go. I just want to make sure that everyone is aware that it is all just metagame fluff. I also see Sa Dragonera as an option, not an obligation. There are distinct advantages: a specialized aura, a regio, privacy, your own staff, independence, personal min-max customization, and so forth. Tying residency to rank places a faux aura of prestige on getting to live at the castle. That is why I want to move Vulcanus to the islands. Using a squirrely Vulcanus style mindset and the personalized Quarters HR's, I can demonstrate how it can be more advantageous for some magi.
It also clears an NPC out of the main covenant. I am between a rock and a had place with the guy. I usually sweep away former PC's, ship them off somewhere like I did Octavian. Vulcanus is an anchor character for at least two other player-characters though, and for several npc children.
what if Vulcanus was replaced by a faerie Doppleganger after Ryu left? Just a thought. Putting it out there for consideration.
For what it's worth, that wasn't my take at all. I just had a different take on things.
D&D and WoD are also my primary gaming background, though I started with the pink box rather than the new-school red one. 
I drew the line at LARPing though. 
I'm all for a little horse-trading among the journeymen to gain favor and status. That's why I mentioned the 'shadow economy' idea when I first proposed my (now obsolete) library rules. They're a bunch of magi isolated from their immediate superiors with their own resources and interests. They can make their own arrangements when it comes to trading favors or whatever else, provided they don't cross certain lines (or get caught crossing them). And they're relatively young and inexperienced, so they're going to screw up something eventually and either get busted by the masters or find a way to hide their mistakes. There are all sorts of possibilities.
All that said, I still don't like the nebulous schedule. Or rather, I'd be more comfortable with it if all the new players were on board. The arrangement we're discussing is a perfectly valid and promising way to run a saga, but it's the kind of arrangement that (IMHO) the players need to know about up front. We're basically saying (I think) 'you will play a low-power character, there will be higher-power PCs who are your superiors, and you'll need to curry favor with them in order to advance within the covenant'. If the new folks are ok with that, I'll withdraw my objections.
Hmmm...perhaps someone with a grudge against the King of Winter? Someone who wants to take something or someone that Fédora's old love prized highly away? Or not.
hmmmm...
hmmmmmmmmmm...
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...
Maybe...
Obviously the Knave of Summer then.
It would be a very convoluted plot line, however, and the way faeries work would be... well whoever is writing that should probably have a fair experience with the faerie books...
So totally vulcanus
Also, maybe he's still so unsufferable that the other magi, companions, covenfolk... manage to convince him to move.
Not at all.
For what it's worth, I agree with you on all points. As I explained before, I'm all for having stringent rules in games, because this looks to me how the characters would do it, but give enough power to the master's council that they can ignore them if so they choose, and, when a player wants to do something, find a reason in-character for the masters to agree with him, even if this may require a bit of discussion and haggling.
Like, we could have rules where people are supposed to be pledge 7 years, and wait 49 more years to become a master, yet in game, it just happens everyone is a master after 5-10 years, because ~~~~
Of course, this depends on our choices. I think that at least some magi should take the long road, especially those that are secondary characters, like Roberto is to Carmen, but we decide 
In fact, since I knew I couldn't be able to play much, that's why I created arachné both as the oldest maga I could and as she is, so we could have a PC-controled "old magus" that didn't steal the light and acted as a somewhat sympathic patron figure.
Overall, great post, very interesting. Thanks
This reminds me of the tragic story of Lord Featherbottom...
I have several underdog...err.... associates working for me. When I have to deal with not-so-important clients I send one of them to do the initial queries and attend to their needs. Only once I get a report back assuring that they require my own expertise I am meeting with them.
If this works for a consultancy, I doubt that a covenant would work any different, so the "most powerful characters" are unlikely to deal with most problems while the junior magi are dedicated to it.