I wrote 'often', not 'always'.
And that derives from the name of St. Pantaleon - so it doesn't help us.
Per the wikitionnary it is as much an augmentatif as a diminutive so it might rqually be a small wall (-on — Wiktionnaire, le dictionnaire libre)
But enough about etymology, it is not vital.
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Quite.
I am not sure about that. You could always make a backstory about a magus misspelling Pantaleon in naming the covenant. That is, if the saint makes you a source of inspiration.
Yep. That would be the first covenant named after a saint, though - and it was still "mistaken for a Cathar stronghold" and destroyed by crusaders. Ouch. 
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Maybe the covenant had been saved, had they just gotten the name right.
The Cathars did not acknowledge saints then?
Never ever!
This is "Paruchia of St Nerius" erasure!
I reckon that you talk about the Priory of St. Nerius (RoP:TD p.94). Right?
There you find, however:
"The followers of the Priory of Saint Nerius (the Neriusians, for short) seek to
convince the Latin Church to recognize their namesake’s sainthood, while keeping
their membership in the Order of Hermes secret and avoiding persecution for their
unusual beliefs. These include religious tolerance for magical beasts and faeries,
which they maintain have rational souls, and that the Garden of Eden is Arcadia,
where all humanity was created. They are a monastic order, following a modified
version of the Benedictine Rule that allows time for study and lab work, and
have recently begun adapting to the Franciscan movement, which allows them
to travel and live among other magi. All Nerusians take the Monastic Vows
(Hermetic) Flaw."
So we learn, that the Priory of St. Nerius is not a covenant but a wandering monastic order of magi. Also Nerius is not recognized by the Latin Church as a saint - though even the magi of Durenmar might call him St. Nerius.
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I actually meant the Paruchia of Nerius from The Contested Isle - it's a tiny Ex Misc covenant of Holy Magi in Hibernia
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Didn't recall that. Thanks.
But whether Nerius is a saint or not depends verrry much on whom you ask in Latin Europe. The Latin Church says no so far.
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I got around to reading his wiki article.
Suggestion: Bentalone was in fact started by magi of a religious bent who saw him as a wielder of Co magic to be emulated. Thus would make neither the catholic church happy (heterodoxy) nor would the cathars (if they actually existed) be too keen on the saintly alignement.
St Pantaleon is associated with healing, physicians, pharmaceuticals and protection from witchcraft, the Covenant might have been founded by three magi who mightbhave seen him as a patrin saint. A "classic" CrCo mage, an ex Misc pharmacopeia mage and a dispeller PeReVi. This could orient both the design of their (now ransaked) labs, but also what books might be left behind.
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I think I have a decent candidate for the location of Bentalone : Montalet Castle in the Cévennes mountains, along the river Cèze.
Historically, the castle was noted in 1199 and 1202 as a long-time property of the Montalet family. Early during the Albigensian crusade, it is said that Arnaud II de Bérard de Montalet, besieged by Simon de Monfort-L’Amaury, set fire to his own castle, which was later rebuilt. The castle overlooks the small mining town of Molières-sur-Cèze (probably iron and/or coal, though silver is possible), on a promontary about 100m above the town to the east.
The castle itself is a curtain wall with seven towers but no central keep. The wall is shaped somewhat like the wing of a bird (an area approximately 60m x 140m, so that would fit inside a Boundary target). The entrance into the walls is protected by a barbican.
This aerial picture shows the outline of the old wall, though the central structure is probably a later addition :
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That's great! Good find. I really like this model.
That raises a couple of things for me. One is how closely we want to tie to real historical places and events. Basing the covenant on a particular castle is good, but if the covenant is too close to real-world examples, will it limit what we create here?
Do others have opinions on how much fine-detail historical accuracy we want in this game?
The other thing is a potential answer to the "Why now?" question. Let's say the site of Bentalone is in the domain of a lord that was killed in the Crusade. The Order of Hermes could be influencing (if not controlling) which of the various successors get the new feudal title. That could mean either delaying the succession until Bentalone is set up as a fait accompli, or even installing a particular lord in return for an acknowledgement of Bentalone's independence. That this is close to the boundaries of the Code, and different PCs will have different opinions on it, is more opportunity for cool gaming.
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Actually, it isn't clear if Arnaud II was killed in the attack, or if he set fire to his castle before he fled so that the crusading army would not gain the castle as a stronghold.
Still, the question of how much of the castle the new covenant is allowed to rebuild by whoever now claims to control the local territory. The new covenant could use the location under many different options:
- Set up under covertly under the castle (either the ruins or the rebuilt site)
- Maintain the appearance of the ruins while partly rebuilding it (with perhaps ghosts keeping mundanes at a distance)
- Get the authorization to rebuild it (eithe completely or partially like Triamore) from whoever owns it
Each one has its own set of challenges.
I would go a step further: the new owner (for example a nephew of Arnaud II) has the claim but not the means to rebuild, so due to some relationship with the magi, they are fronting the capital and man(or mage)power to rebuild the castle from the ruins but in exchange he effectively becomes a tame nobleman. So long as his holdings are not deemed up as crazy powerful (a few dozen villages in the area, of which he gets to keep half the proceeds and the magi the other for the building and upkeep of the castle for example), he could be either a companion or a grog of the covenant.
Now the issue is, the aura: an entire castle as a magic aura seems unreasonable especially since there would be divine auras creeping from all the Christians milling about. Maybe an underground area, large enough to hold a few labs, beneath the castle happens to be a former roman temple of Mercury, Isis, Epona or whoever... So the magi could have their own delineated hangout.
Maybe Arnault II was a Tame noble, and De Montfort expected him (and the grogs) to join the crusade, which the magi opposed.
Maybe the fire came from a trigger-happy Flambeau? 
That might cover what happened to the original Bentalone. But what of the reborn covenant? I think that is more important here, as it will set the tone of the covenant.
How about this...
In 1218, the two sponsoring covenants discreetely arranged to provide to the new lord of Montalet the ressources required to restore the castle, in exchange for the right to use two of the towers for "scholars" and their retinue, as well a small share of the taxes from the villages under the castle's protection. In 1220, when several of the apprentices from the two covenants completed their Gauntlet, they moved there to revive Bentalone. The work to rebuild the castle will continue for several years yet, but it is now advanced enough that they can move into the first tower and direct how the second tower will be constructed.
This means that the magi must live close with mundanes and keep only a few grogs and covenfolk. They have access to the craftspeople that live in the castle, and have sufficient silver to run the covenant. But they must remain subtle in their use of magic when they leave their towers.
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