@Ptitboul thanks for the shout out. I've done much meditation on early history of the order games:
- Yes, all house covenants would be the large majority of the covenants. I would also strongly posit given my medieval research, that cross house covenants would likely be the result of the Magi knowing each other beforehand. These relationships would be from meeting at tribunals and writing each other regularly following. A lot of historical research is showing how much family/kin/friend networks were a lot more influential than previously thought on medieval activity and formation of big projects.
- The libraries will be really small. Likely some primers and lower level books on the arts, almost no tractatus yet, and very small amounts of lab notes. In the early 800s the literacy rate and amount of work for church scribes was substantially less than the early 1200s, so scribes will be elite grogs in very high demand and better paid for their services.
- Another consideration is that what we consider as "knights" didn't really exist at this point. I believe knights as a seperate warrior class between commoner and noble didn't happen until more iron mines were found throught Europe in the latter 900s. Most knights will be landed minor nobility (Knight+Landed virtues) as Iron was significantly more expensive at this time and the amount of cavalry was a much smaller part of the armies as the breeding projects and stables were still being formed. Remember that the idea of knights was Charlemagne being super impressed by Byzantine Cataphracts of the time (later 700s) and wanting to copy them, hence the nobles copied Charlemagne. So horses will in higher demand and lower numbers too, I would think.
- It sounds like you're in England, which was Saxon at the time and split into several smaller competing kingdoms. I recomend reading The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman | Goodreads for saga inspiration as well.
- This is also an excellent opportunity to introduce "non canonical" elements to the history of the Order that "didn't happen" in the official histories by the 1200s. Introduce some conspiracies that are rooted out. In my 1095 game, I came up with idea that the Schism War so apocalyptic that a 14th House Seswatha was destroyed and literally written out of the histories and covered up by a cross OoH and OoS conspiracy group called the "Unholy Consult" who serve the "No-God" - a being from the Stars Beyond the Lunar Sphere.
- There will be a lot more Hedge Wizards at this point still than by the 1200s for the PCs to encounter.
Some previous threads of mine for further thought:
The Pre-History of the Order is a lie - What is the truth? - Games Discussion / Ars Magica - Atlas Games RPG Forum
The History of the Order is a lie. What is the - Games Discussion / Ars Magica - Atlas Games RPG Forum
Also note that my preferences for the history of the order are rather divergant in the community here.