Covenant Rules Surroundings

Surroundings

A circle twenty miles across, as a rough estimate, is the area that the mounted warriors from a castle can impose its lord’s will. The circle is distorted by geography, political considerations, and mystical influence, but the twenty miles around a covenant are its home ground. The majority of the covenant’s food, income, and emergencies are generated within this radius, and these Boons and Hooks describe its contents.

Major Surroundings Boons

• Defensive Environment: Magical forces confound invaders in this area. In one part of Ireland, for example, the fog rises from the ground to befuddle harassing bandits and warn locals of trespassers. Some forests twist their trails so that tax collectors become lost. There are islands defended by winds, or circles of storms. These natural forces tend to be worthless again saints.
• Tithing Miracles: A tithe, literally “tenth,” is the share of a person’s income that he gives to the Church. A tithing miracle is a miraculous increase in the remaining income that makes good the loss of the tithe. These miracles are reported regularly in this area, which makes the surrounding people particularly pious, and wealthier than normal. This in turn makes the Church more powerful than it would otherwise be. The miracle is usually noticed when the goods are sold, and found to be heavier than the owner expects, up to the weight of the untithed material. In some places miracles of increase exceed the tithe; the book of Kings describes a miracle in which a woman fills many pots with oil from a single pot to avoid selling her sons into slavery.
• Mystical Allies: A large mystical creature is the friend and occasional benefactor of the covenant. Alternatively, a group of smaller animals assists the covenant.

Minor Surroundings Boons

• Chase: A chase is an area of royal forest, or other forest that once belonged to a major nobleman, that has been granted to the covenant for its use. The intended function of the chase is the breeding and capture of game animals, like deer, and the chase probably includes hides and runs, to aid in hunting. The covenant, in turn, usually allows its servants use of the chase. Poaching is typically forbidden, as is tree felling, but the magi may vary this as suits them, to reward exceptional service. Most peasants collect firewood in the chase, harvest wild nuts and berries, and run small groups of pigs. The chase is a thoroughly domesticated piece of woodland. It usually lacks large predators, like wolves, but the covenant employs gamekeepers to ensure that new marauders do not migrate into the chase. Gamekeepers may live in the chase, with their families. Chases also attract criminals as hiding places. There are many stories of knights finding faerie courts while chasing deer, but the covenant’s chase is probably free of faerie nobles. Lesser faeries are found in profusion, but they have a more human, and friendlier, character than the primal forces of the dark woods. It is not, however, unusual for a chase to abut an untamed forest. The border is often marked in some way, for example by a stream. Beyond the border, the forces of the wild often lay traps, and post guards, to dissuade humans who stray from the chase.
• Hidden Ways: The characters, and perhaps some local mundanes, can make their way around the countryside by some conventional means that is unavailable to outsiders. This virtue suits the secret paths of Sherwood or other forests, the labyrinthine canals of the Wash or other swamps, the intricacies of navigating caves or sewers, or ways of moving swiftly through a city’s spaces.
• Minority: The mundane settlements near the covenant have many representatives of a foreign cultural group, which has its own customs and folk-magical practices. Members of the group might settle in the covenant, if offered a better life than in the surrounding settlements. A covenant in England has many Jews among its covenfolk. They find the covenant a liberating community. The magi do not prohibit them from owning land, do not prevent them from entering trades, and do not force them to wear a white clothing patch. The covenant’s friendliness toward Jews must be kept secret, however, because the King of England has owned all Jews in his kingdom, and all of their property, since the Laws of Edward the Confessor were drafted in the 12th century. The laws allow a rich man to have Jews if he buys a special license, but the covenant has so many of the king’s chattels in its employ that it would not be able to give him the required money without raising the ire of the Quaesitores.

Major Surroundings Hooks

• City: The covenant lies near a city. This is very convenient for purchasing material, but can lead to problems for political reasons. Most cities desire to dominate their hinterland, but noblemen usually control the area around cities and are jealous of their prerogatives. A city is a rich source of revenue, so if these noblemen are sufficiently powerful, they wish to control the city themselves. This Hook places the covenant in the zone where the city and its neighbors play out their disputes.
• Demonic Interest: This area has come to the particular attention of a powerful demon. It does not focus its attention entirely on the covenant, but it would like to claim the souls of the magi, and their servants, for Hell. The demon is served by a series of lesser Infernal spirits, and it sends them, usually one at a time, to oppress the area.
• Enclosed: Forces that the magi cannot currently counter have prevented all mundane travel to the rest of the world. This has the advantage of making the covenant safe from prying priests and noblemen, but leaves the covenant vulnerable to shortages of materials and skilled laborers. Any surplus the covenant produces for trade is likely valueless, as are portable forms of wealth like precious metal and gemstones, since there are no buyers for these goods available. They may be stored until the covenant connects with the outside world.
• Faerie Landlord: A powerful faerie claims all of the territory that the covenant uses, and is easily angered by its activities. The landlord has extensive magical abilities and many spies. An example is the giant Idris, who controls all of the land around the mountain that bears his name, in Wales. He can call down mist over the land, ruin crops with foul weather, and send his servants — gray foxes who can seep into houses like clouds — to spy on and sabotage his enemies.
• Meddlesome Saint: A saint takes special interest in this area, perhaps because her relics are held in a local church. The saint is the patron of a cause or profession, which she seeks to promote while simultaneously attempting to lead certain people back to the true path. A meddlesome saint is far worse than a meddlesome person, because saints are all but beyond Hermetic power.
• Monster: A powerful mystical creature lives inside the covenant. The creature can be aligned with any realm, and should be too powerful for the player characters to defeat at the beginning of the saga.
• Pagans: The covenfolk of this community worship something other than the Christian God. This is likely to cause intense friction with the Church if discovered. If the object of their worship answers their prayers on a dependable basis, it must be bought separately as a Boon, most likely an Ally.
• Pilgrimage Site: Pious people travel from across the kingdom to visit a holy shrine near the covenant. This means that the Church is more active and vigilant in the area than usual. As a partial recompense, there are large numbers of wealthy people traveling through the area, and many similarly situated covenants make money by providing services to pilgrims.
• Ruined Covenant: The covenant is near the site of a powerful covenant, which has fallen into ruin. The younger covenant controls some of the previous covenant’s resources, but has not discovered them all, nor explored the central site of its predecessor.
• Seat of Power: The covenant is near the primary residence of a great nobleman or a prince of the church. Either is capable of raising a large army, and jealous of his control of the sources of revenue within this area.

Minor Surroundings Hooks

• Death Prophecies: An apparition appears in the area to warn certain people that they are about to die. Many of these people seek to prevent their deaths using methods detrimental to their fellows. Some attempt to atone for their sins; others begin a final round of debauchery and murder.
• Deathbed Visitor: A supernatural being appears to many people in the surrounding area as they are about to die. In some areas, it is Death himself; in others, demons come seeking the souls of sinners. If this visitor can be tricked, or beaten in a game in which the dying individual wagers his life or soul, then the dying person might be saved.
• Faerie Court: There is a faerie court somewhere near the covenant. A faerie court is usually limited to a small geographical area, like a woodland, lakebed, or ring of stones. It is an endless source of stories if sought out. Occasionally the faeries may leave the court, like the Hounds of Anwyn chasing the dead across Wales by night, or the Selkie King coming ashore to find a bride. This Hook may be Unknown.
• Fated Feat: An incomplete prophecy is widely known in the area. It causes upheaval whenever someone attempts to complete it. For example, in a castle near a covenant in Wales, there is a horn that can be blown only by the true heir of the ancient kings. Anyone attempting to gain access to the horn is claiming the local nobleman has no right to rule, which leads to trouble, but the horn periodically disappears from the castle, as if seeking an owner. Similar prophecies lead people to disturb resting monsters throughout Mythic Europe.
• Fallen Temple: There is an area near the covenant that was, for a lengthy period, a site of magical practice. The temple site has not been secured, so the covenant’s members cannot be sure what defenses or treasures wait there.
• Festival: A large number of the local peasants gather for festivals on certain occasions. This often inconveniences the magi. For example, the Irish Beltane Fire Festivals dispel minor Hermetic enchantments and curse witches, so those with The Gift must hide behind the Aegis of the Hearth on those evenings. Passion plays may be followed by troublesome miracles, or over-excited mobs.
• Ford: Near the covenant lies a ford that is the most convenient river-crossing for at least three days travel in either direction. The river channels travelers to the ford, which can be exploited for income, but the ford is also an obvious military objective in times of strife, since it can be held by few men against many.
• Guardians: In ancient times a hedge magician bound guardians to a site near the covenant. A legend says that the guardians protect the magician’s treasure, but a second, and more troubling, story says that the guardians are the jailers of a monster the wizard could not kill. The local nobility have made it clear that they do not desire anyone to disturb the trouble sleeping at the site, so any investigation must be circumspect.
• Heretics: A large number of people in the area surrounding the covenant hold views of which the Church is unlikely to approve, once they become aware of them. The Church’s initial response may be to send friars to the area in an attempt to draw the heretics back to the true faith, but if this fails, military action by the Church’s mundane allies may follow. This Hook may be Unknown.
• Hermit: A saintly hermit lives within the vicinity of the covenant. He does not meddle much in the affairs of mundane people, but is sometimes drawn from seclusion by visions. This Hook may be Unknown until the first encounter.
• Legendary Site: An important historical event took place close to the covenant. This affects the covenant occasionally because either the events have not yet resolved themselves or outsiders sometimes stir up the site seeking artifacts or historical legitimacy. The regiones around Tintagel in Cornwall, for example, lie at the heart of many Arthurian myths: Merlin might wake from his slumber, a meddling person might unsheathe the sword that wakes the sleeping knights, or a king might attempt to seize the Round Table as it rises from a bog each midsummer and anger the faeries by his success or seek the aid of magi after his failure.
• Massacre Site: There is a piece of unhallowed ground near the covenant that was created by diabolism, battle, or some other terrible misfortune. Ghosts, animals possessed by demons, and clouds of illness come forth from it, and rumors of greater horrors are common. This Hook may be Unknown.
• Missing Expedition: A group of Hermetic magi attempted to set up a covenant in this area many years ago, but they vanished. Clues to their fate may emerge, and whatever happened to them might threaten to recur. This Hook may be Unknown.
• Monastery: There is a monastery near the covenant, which uses much of the local land to support its monks. The monastery is not militarized, but the local population finds its leaders persuasive, and as it grows, it may desire some of the covenant’s land. Even now, it expects financial support from the covenant.
• Monster: A powerful mystical creature lives near the covenant. The creature can be aligned with any realm, and should be too powerful for the player characters to defeat at the beginning of the saga. This Hook may be Unknown.
• Protector: The covenant is responsible for protecting something, such as a village, a magical grove, or a weaker covenant. This Hook may be taken more than once, to represent multiple protectorates, and the site may be distant from the covenant.
• Roman Ruins: A ruined Roman fort, wall, or township lies near the covenant. Rumors say it is intermittently haunted, and some treasure may remain, hidden nearby. The ruin’s chief use to magi is that it is made of dressed stone, which can be reused to make covenant buildings, if they can secure the rights to it from its owners. This Hook may be Unknown.
• Sanctuary: A site near the covenant is a sanctuary: a place where the accused can shelter, either due to ancient law or because it is owned by the Church. Sanctuaries tend to attract desperate criminals, and innocents who are even more desperate. This Hook may be Unknown.
• Site of Weakness: A mystical site near the covenant could be used by the unscrupulous to harm people for miles around. For example, a faerie stone in Wales that unleashes terrible storms that destroy crops if water is poured upon it. Climbing Mount Pilatus in the Alps can generate similar storms. Another covenant guards a graveyard, because sleeping there causes terrible plagues to emerge from the Earth and blow across the countryside. This Hook may be Unknown.
• Ungarrisoned Castle: Within the covenant’s vicinity lies a castle belonging to a major noble or the Crown. Like most castles, it is ungarrisoned in times of peace. A constable, perhaps a minor knight, and his household keep it ready for rapid militarization, should trouble brew.