Lotharingian Round table of 1226
Beware spoilers ahead...
Since there seems to be interest, here are my notes on it. The Tribunal formation will take place in 1228 in my game, and since my party's Covenant is on good terms with Triamore (one of the mages joined the apple Gild, another seduced Daria) the party was invited to send a representative or two to the roundtable. As I see things happening in the world outside of the PC's control, I found it a good way to reinforce this feeling. They first heard from the Lotharingian plot when securing the sponsorship from the Occulus, where they traded away their votes on the issue for sponsorship.
Location: Triamore
Participants:
Rhine:
- Triamore: Daria ex Tremere, Remi ex Jerbiton and Sicero ex Tremere
- Augusta Trevorum chapter house of Triamore: Echion ex Tremere (29 at start):
- Occulus: Henri de Tour ex Jerbiton (Henri de Tours is a corpulent and sociable man, dressed splendidly as befits his status as probably the wealthiest merchant in LĂĽbeck and possibly in Germany)
- Waddenzee: Marcus ex Verditius [in my game, due to PC house choice and location, he deliberately moved to Waddenzee having only been a perigrinator in Lubeck]
- Rheingasse (Fengheld Chapter House) Willhelm Weiss ex Jerbiton
- Fengheld: Peter von Wurzburg ex Fengheld
- Heorot/Vagrant: Theodorich von Augsburg ex Jerbiton (necromancer and historian, into ghosts and the Beowulf story), Laconic and morbid [* I started my saga, in 1221, right after the Tribunal, the two main issues that took place there were the reopening of the Rhine gorge and the failed accession of Heorot, due to Cintera vetoing it*]
Normandy:
- Florum (Ghent): Calvinus ex Jerbiton (looks mid 40s, tall and Flemish the Gentle Gift.) and his apprentice Sophia (Italian, 11 year old). p97 Lyon and Lily. (He is superbly dressed in the finest Flemish fashion.)
- Requies Aeterna (Florum vassal): Bernard ex Misc (Donatores Undead hunter tradition, dutiful, dour, gaunt, late 30s, last filius of Eulogius, one of the founders, tonsured like a monk and wears a plain black robe). p103 Lyon and Lily
Topics
Who will be Praeco?
Oldest: Eulogius ex Misc (Donatores, old but ininterested) Prunellie of Merinita (101) more active, likes travelling
Who will be Quaesitor?
Phaenus ex Guernicus, in Andresina isn’t interested [in my game, I put a Fengheld chapter house there, he is a native of Greece, Apollo worshiper and hyperborean singer (the party doesn't quite know the last part)], Hygwald Veritas ex Tremere (Waddenzee) wants the jobs most people against this.
Offer an external Guernicus? Where to set them up?
Redcap hubs?
Occulus and Spider’s rest (where Maria trained).[Maria ex mercere is a freshly gauntleted Redcap and peregrinator in Dunremar. She does deliver mail, but is super greedy and has antagonised several of the party grogs by never paying her round]
Cost of maintenance of Tribunal?
some form of vis sharing, asked by the Normans who will lose some ressources due to leaving Normandy.
Political strategies? Recognition by Rhine?
(see later)
Peripheral code?
Tabula rasa, start from scratch. Need to find a Guernicus or Quaesitor on board wit hthis.
Fourth estate declaration
Sodales, friends, the world is changing, becoming more populous, and competition for resources is increasing. The allodial land that our predecessors relied upon are growing rarer, as are vis sources and magical auras. – Remi ex Jerbiton
Under House Tremere’s influence, the Order in Transylvania has acquired the trappings of statehood, with Coeris at its head, taxes paid by magi under its purview, and magi stratified by status as the nobles are here. Taxes and tithes are of vis, the service owed is spent as the Tribunal dictates, and the Tribunal imposes rules upon covenant membership and the rights and obligations of its magi. Echion’s contribution
Main split:
The Tremere favour a state-like solution, with clear laws and more centralised authority among the magi, who then might have specialised representative to the nobles. Proper mage hierarchy like the church with the more qualified dealing with the relevant issues.
The Jerbiton way is more consensual, less hierarchic solution, and a gradual integration into modern society. Mostly by allying with cities.
This is where PCs can really weigh in
Other Covenant/Gild relations:
Covenants
Andresina, in Burgundy: not interested in switching, want to remain in Normandy (they are a Fengheld chapter house with 2 magi in my game, one of them a guernicus disciple of apollo)
Durenmar: Against a weakening of the Rhine
Oculus Septentrionalis: joining.
Waddenzee: joining.
Fengheld: Letting Rheingasse join, mostly in favour, despite a few dissenting voices, Andresina not interested. Stentorius is in favour though officially abstaining, as a way to weaken/embarass Murion in view of a late campaign Fengheld-Dunremar showdown.
Irencillia: Doesn’t care
Roznov: Igor Rastvan ex Misc doesn’t care, Severicus ex Tremere is utterly against out of conservatism.
Crintera: Agrees in principle, so long as no claim is made on the islands, but problem with Heorot.
Dankmar: Agrees to spite Dunremar, Daria has constructive discussions with Shadrit.
Triamore: joining
Gilds
Apple: for
Hawthorne and Elder: don’t care, happy to see the pro-city political opponents go away, will give their gilds more weight.
Linden: neutral
Ash: neutral but split on the extremes (Schwartz Pete [Philipus niger in my campaign, because on the day I introduced him, I was so focus on how I pronounced Niger that I switched his name around] is against, lower ranked see a chance to be more like Normandy and raid more mundanes)
Oak: against, dislike change