The holy influence of powerful churchmen

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

Hello,

in "Realms of Power, The Divine" it is described, how characters can exert holy influence. The target of this is "a physical location; a bishop´s charge is his see, for example" (p. 38). One possibility for holy influence is tempering a divine aura. In "Antagonists" Bishop Orris tempers the aura of his whole diocese with the "wise" temper - that means, all divine auras in his diocese and his subjects living there become a little wiser (personality trait change +1, +2 or +3). Because he uses personal influence over and over in his rituals, the growth of wisdom in his bishopric is quasi permanent (unless the bishop dies or stops his special kind of leading services). In my saga, the characters will live probably in an archdiocese. The head of the church in this part of Mythic Europe is an archbishop - a churchman with more power than a bishop. He presides over an ecclesiastical province, so accordingly to Bishop Orris I think he is able to temper all divine auras in his ecclesiastical province.

When I looked for the border of his ecclesiastical prvince (Mayence in the rhine tribunal) I was shocked: the province reaches from northern germany as far as switzerland, czechia inclusive... the tool of holy influence is much more powerful than I thought.

Then the pope came to my mind...

I have no problems with this rules, but their consequences are quite breathtaking.

Chiarina

2

Well, yeah. The Church is very powerful, in that way and others. I mean, direct intervention by God isn't the only reason the Order of Hermes is scared of getting on the Church's bad side. Theoretically, the Church can (and to an extent does) control everything and everyone mundane at will, and God also gives some rather powerful abilities, which, among other things, can Pentrate quite high MR and directly or indirectly cause major damage. Archbishops and similar characters have the capacity to weave powerful glamour-like commanding auras around themselves, too. Depending on how much corruption God tolerates in your saga, the Church can be a really mighty oppressive force, easily surpassing the strength of attempted liberators like the Order or the Royal Crown (not that either would actually risk involvement).