Has anything been written in the RAW about what happens to registered Vis sources when a covenant collapses? If not, what would you rule?
My players are establishing a covenant. A covenant once stood nearby, but was overrun 40 years ago. What happened to the former covenants' registered vis sources?
How detailed is this registration? Is it enough for the tribunal to know that the covenant harvests Creo from a Giant Purple Chicken, but not give away the location of said chicken? Then if the covenant in question catches someone (perhaps a Bjornaer with a Fox heartbeast ) in their Magical Henhouse, they can bring charges?
When the covenant collapsed, do the registered vis sources go unclaimed until someone finds them again?
Or does the registered vis automatically become property of the Tribunal, perhaps going to house Mercere?
I'm inclined to have a couple of the vis sources be still unclaimed, so that the characters can hunt for them. But 40 years seems like a long time for known vis sources to go unclaimed.
(I know, I know, do whatever suits the story best. I'm just curious if anything has been written. And if not, what would you do in the situation.)
I don't think what happens to abandoned vis sources is written anywhere, though True Lineages does say that to register a vis source, the covenant needs to tell a Redcap the location and annual yield, and that he needs to see the vis collected to notarize it. Lion and the Lily has some rules about what happens to vis in Normandy, but I assume you're not playing there.
What I'd do is say that if a covenant collapses, its vis sources becomes fair game for whoever wants them. Until they are claimed by another covenant, I would imagine the Redcaps-- who know where it is and how to get it-- harvest the vis for their House whenever they're in the area. I'd also say that by custom, Mercer Houses don't get to register vis sources for themselves, so that Gifted magi always get precedence.
So, your players could find these lost vis sources by searching, or possibly by bribing or threatening the local Redcaps to get them to tell them where they are. They're unlikely to reveal it for nothing, though, because as long as no other magi find them, the Redcaps get to collect the vis.
I'd base it on location. If another covenant/single magus is close enough, or able to get there easily enough to bother collecting the vis, then they should be able to claim it.
If the former covenant is isolated enough that it would be a pain to collect the vis, then it's still available. Redcaps would collect from any unclaimed vis sources/encourage gifted house-mates to claim if it were convenient to actually get the vis - many sites need specific spells/actions/contests to get the actual vis.
So, I'd have it that House Mercere has claimed all the sources where you can just pick the vis up. Other houses/covenants have claimed nearby ones. And the players will either have to find new vis sources, buy some off Mercere or have a bit of a challenge to be able to harvest the tricky unclaimed ones. I.E. have stories to get their vis!
One political one would be to claim that they are a continuation of the previous covenant (get surviving magi/their filii to testify) and try to get their tribunal to 'return their property' (possibly with a backpayment/tithe therefrom for the quaesitores who have 'facilitated the rightful claim').
I would assume that in the first instance anyone who could claim to be the heirs of the covenant would inherit the vis source. Otherwise anybody else who knew about the source could try to register it for themselves. Finally, where convenient House Mercere would probably collect the vis. Remember, however, that although House Mercere knows about a registered vis source, they might not know enough to actually collect it, particularly if there is a bit of fiddling about required to get the vis.
All the claims are probably contestable at Tribunal. For are start what does a "collapsed covenant" mean? Are all the magi dead or in final twilight? Magi (or things claiming to be the magi) have recovered from such circumstances before.
It might be Tribunal by Tribunal. I remember that the Greater Alps has a different way of handling it than Normandy. The GA collects all of the Vis of the covenant that is dead and distributes them to all of the other covenants in the Tribunal.
) in their Magical Henhouse, they can bring charges?