I think it fits fine. Not all Flambeau are from France, and not all (even from France) follow Garus. And there are many other considerations. That, or something similar, woulf fit.
But let us not rehash ancient debates.
Timothy, if you were to redo Alps for ArM5, what would you do differently? What would you keep? Discard or change?
It depends how deep the line changes were, but my first impressions are these:
I'm really tempted by the idea that Valnastium is a brand new DM, placed here after the fall of the proper one, which was in/near Constantinople in 1204. Explaining how Constantinople fell is tough in this game, but explaining why the Jerbitons are up in the hills is harder still. The explanation we went with, which is that this was where young Jerbiton came from, lets us make him the odd Founder. He's the married one who took his wife to the First Tribunal. He's the one who had a Christian burial, and we know exactly where his tomb is. He's basically the one who is still in some sense a human being instead of a myth. That being said, I'm not sure that you couldn't make the whole thing more dynamic by saying "Valnastium is where Jerbiton was born and was buried, but that doesn't matter. It's been a DM for 16 years. People are still getting used ot that. A lot of the people here have no intention of staying here. They are angry. A lot of others want the new DM to be in Paris, or London, or Sevile."
I like that the Cave of Twisting Shadows has gone from just being a shout-out to Plato to being something a lot more macabre and strange. The problem with doing the covenants in one book and the houses in another is that its kind of like doing Sahirs in one book and Arabia in another, in this case. You can't say too much. I think we were ahead of the curve on the "creepy little girl" meme and I'm glad she took over from the previous one, because I think the character is a lot more active. What I'd like to do is have the characters speak to the Axis Magica. I'd like to have it as an obviously intelliegent thing which seeks completeness and dispatches acolytes to help it achieve that, like a sort of self-constructing god.
I think that some of the extreme examples I pushed in the book are no longer extreme. A community of people who are adapted to cold, indeed suffer from exposure in normal temperatures, is nothing compared to what I see Fae aligned covenants being now. I'd go even weirder there, just on a "you have permission to do this in the vanilla setting, you canon-worshippers!" basis. Similarly, one of the covenants was too weird for Ars when it first came out (everyone has a dreaming self with different stats, and the community is physically different and has different rules while everyoine is alseep) but now that's well within the scope of what could be done. Similarly, the moonweaving in the Dolomites should let you go to Lucian's moon kingdom. We couldn't do it then because that was just bizarre, but actually we could now do it without much fuss.
I still like the idea that if you have a frontier, you need to have an Old World, and that the Alps are that Old World. My concern is that there isn't much of a frontier anymore, so you don't need the Old World so much. In, say, 2nd edition, Stonehenge was not a core Tribunal - it was still a Wild West place. Ecen in places like Provencal, Hermetic law was a bit hit and miss. The core of the order was very small. In current Ars, I think you can safely argue that the "border" regions are Hibernia and the Levant, whatever is to the east of Novogord and Transylvania, and North Africa. The thing is: that means that most of the Order is now back east, not in the Wild West. One outcome of this is that faeries have been redesigned so that they respawn - in previous editions, the Order was gradually "civilising" the world. In the new edition, it's pretty much dione that, and so you need an excuse why people haven't killed the faeries in a location. "No-one has been here before." doesn;t cut it anymore. My big point here is that the sort of feel I tried for in SoI, of really ancient covenants, should now flow out into other areas.
The final thing? I'd make some of the covneants vastly more powerful. Very few people seem to have noticed that in New Covenants, the point structure is based on what your characters can have acces to, not the absolute resources of the covenant. There isn't any upper cap on the power of a particular covenant anymore - only on what your starting characters are permitted to play with. I think that gives us a lot more scope for Gormenghastian things, and for deep history reflected by resources, in the covenants
I would definitely love to see Rome, but I agree with views above that this could be done in multiple books.
I've rather ambitiously started a campaign on the Isle of Sicily. There is some good info out there but not enough to make it historically accurate beyond info about Frederick. Perhaps a book about Mundane Rome and Hermetic/Mystic Rome. I'd certainly buy both.
Given that it's actually plausible in the next couple years after Provencal in 2014, what tribunal book would you like to see in 2015?
Stonehenge, but ... more Mythical, less Historical, please. A book about Heirs to Merlin indeed, and to Arthurian legend and all that involves. And to Stonehenge and all that relates to that. And one fitted to ArM5. Not a generic book on British history with no game stats and virtually no relation to the rich British folklore and legendary sites. [Sorry, didn't like that tribunal book...]
Although I think Rome would make the most sense in that it's the one most missing. It's more central, and the 3e assumptions that underlie that tribunal book are more in need of updating.
Yair
I always liked the idea of Venice being a hermetic city. With covenants from all over having chapterhouses there. The Rome book had it limited to just that tribunal, but I could see a 5th edition version were powerful Magi from all over Mythic Europe meet, trade, and politic in that city. (or another) It would make an interesting book or maybe just a section of some upcoming book.
I'd love to see them all redone... I have a particular soft spot for the Levant and Stonehenge tribunals, but I have to agree that the Rome tribunal is in most dire need of a revision. It's a pretty important hermetic hotspot considering it's home to the domi magni of both the Redcaps and the Quaesitors. I'd have no problem with some of the more mundane political content being moved to a "Holy Roman Empire" sourcebook, which I'd also like to see (might be an alternative to redoing the entire "Mythic Europe" sourcebook from 3rd edition).