Holy Magic Covenant Project

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This is a Covenant Project for the Ars Magica 5 rpg, tracking the progress of a group of magi over time. In this case, the magi in question will be holy magicians, using the rules from Realms of Power: Divine. The setup will be inspired by the "Servants of God" scenario in Thrice-Told Tales, except with three apprentices rather than one. We used this situation in our saga, which saw all members of the Servants of God sworn to the Code and forming a covenant, Sevorum Dei. Fabianus, their pater, was Marched and so no longer available to teach and protect them (nominally, a tremere was put in the Covenant to provide some protection against other magi, but they're Not Interesting for the purposes of this project). Afterwards, I was curious as to how far a collection of untrained apprentices left a handful of books could bootstrap themselves, and what sort of a legacy of Holy Magic they could leave for others. So I decided to do a Covenant Project on it. I suspect a lot of the interesting parts of this situation would come from being a potential centre for Holy Magic, and attracting the attention of Holy Magicians all over Mythic Europe - but that is explicitly outside the scope of the project.

Project Goals

  • To find out what sorts of resources a covenant of absolute beginner Holy Magicians can develop if left to their own devices.

Assumptions

  • The Covenant is in the town of Olmutz, in Moravia (so these are appropriate Area Lore abilities, and the native language is Czech)
  • The Covenant space - a crypt below a church - has a Divine Aura of +4; the Church has an Divine Aura of 5.
  • The magi are excused from all church duties, but may spend seasons working in the scriptorium (gaining practice XP in Profession: Scribe or similar), or in Worship (gaining 5XP in Church Lore, Concentration, Music, or any divine-aligned Art or supernatural ability which they already have).
  • The mystics are excused from most duties (TTT, p. 75), but must spend a season a year in Worship (as above), or on accompanying the Archdeacon on his rounds (gaining practice in Church Lore, Moravia Lore, Civil and Canon Law, or on Divine-aligned supernatural abilities).
  • The Covenant library initially has the works listed in Thrice-Told Tales, p. 74.
  • Apart from those left them by Fabianus, the magi do not seek out other Hermetic works, as they are idolatrous. They may obtain mundane works listed in Art & Acadame.
  • The magi are not well-liked, so can trade vis only with the Redcaps at the usual exchange rate of 1:2.
  • The mystics are used to the magi (or have parma extended over them), so are not penalised by their Gift
  • Vis Hunting uses the rules from Faerie Stories (4th ed), with a tweak to allow hunting for Divine vis.
  • Hunting for potential apprentices uses the rules from Apprentices (Per vs EF 12; extra people can help, adding +3 each if they pass a relevant ability check vs ease factor 12). I'll pick a suitable apprentice from the 30 Days of Apprentices challenge e.g. Hubert
  • Hunting for people with True Faith (to potentially learn Methods & Powers) uses the same rules, but anyone found will likely be older (14 + a stress die for age?). Possible true faith ideas.
  • For random rolls, use D10 Roller
  • The magi's Ex Misc package (Holy Magic, Ceremony, and Necessary Condition (Prayer)) is effectively taught by initiation.

Covenant goals
The goal of the Covenant is that set by Fabianus: harmonise the order of Hermes with the Dominion, by establishing Holy Magic on a secure foundation.

Short-term

  • Learn enough Holy Magic to be able to train Apprentices
  • Compile a library of works on Holy Magic to benefit their eventual apprentices

Medium-term

  • Create a Holy version of Aegis of the Hearth
  • Find Gifted children to train as Holy Mages
  • Find people with True Faith to refound the Sevorum Dei
  • Learn Holy Methods and Powers by Contemplative Mysticism

Long-term

  • Integration of Holy Methods and powers fully into Holy magic paradigm - Possible holy magic breakthroughs
  • Integration of Ceremony so it can be used to boost Holy effects.
  • Convert the order to Holy Magic (outside scope).

Areas of focus

  • Louis (Book Learner) - Mentem, and learning to manipulate emotions
  • Edmund (Apt Student) - Corpus, and learning to heal
  • Johannes (Inventive Genius) - Vim, and learning to detect the Gift
  • Gabriel - Adjuration; Demons
  • Michael - Blessing
  • Clotho - Wonders

Milestones
7 - first holy mystic recruited
9 - first lvl 20 spell
12 - first lvl 25 spell
14 - Aegis of the Hearth (ReVi 20) invented
19 - first magus takes an apprentice (Louis)
21 - first lvl 30 spell
29 - Aegis of the Hearth (ReVi 25) invented
30 - Holy Magic level 4 summa
34 - first apprentice is Gauntleted (Tadeas)
39 - first talisman attuned
40 - first level 20 art
40 - first lvl 40 spell
41 - first level 10 arts summa


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