Arelat

The eastern march of the Provençal Tribunal was the site of the first Roman settlements outside Italy. The medieval culture of the Church and the towns of the so-called Kingdom of Arelat and Provence overlie a tapestry of ancient Roman and Gallic ruins. Encompassing the area of the Kingdom of Lower Burgundy, it is bounded by the Rhone in the west except for the small County of Viviers, the town of Beaucaire, and the area of Lyonnais appended across the river. It stretches east along the Mediterranean coastline toward the Maritime Alps just past Nice. Over the last millennium the area was beset with repeated waves of barbarians: Franks, Lombards, and Saracens, only to be finally conquered by the armies of Charles Martel. In the 13th century it is more peaceful, and is a blossoming heart of the troubadour culture that is to spread throughout southern Europe.

The area's indistinct northeastern boundary lies just beyond the monastery of Grand Chartreuse somewhere near the border between the Dauphine Viennois and marches up to the lands of Count Thomas of Savoy in the territory of the Greater Alps. The current settlements of the Order, however, all lie further to the south in the lands of the County and March of Provence proper. Proud of their status as heirs of the Roman Provincia, the original southern Lotharingian covenants began a tradition of preserving their original Latin names for all official documentation. Like the Romans before them, the original Hermetic settlers

Considered by its members to be an exemplar of Hermetic cooperation, some other magi of the Tribunal believe the Coenobium to be an increasingly despotic power bloc. The multi-site covenant controls nearly all of the area's significant magical resources and dominates the local hedge magicians (see later for further details).

Some fear the Coenobium will attempt to dominate the disorganized Tribunal in the wake of the recent Albigensian Crusade. Perhaps they will do so in a less aggressive manner than the raiders under Sayyid, but some wonder if the might of the right is worse than that of the initial wrong that forged them. Whose side will the characters choose?

Originally, the region within the Provençal Tribunal now referred to as Arelat was part of the Lotharingian Tribunal. This early entity ceased to exist after the Grand Tribunal decision of 898 that reassigned many of the northern covenants to either the Normandy or Rhine Tribunals. The rump left behind, comprising the lands of the Kingdom of Arles along the banks of the Rhone and scattered settlements in the Toulousain, became known as the Provençal Tribunal.

The magi of the Coenobium have little interest in the northern political movement sponsored by the Apple Gild of the Rhine led by Daria of Triamore and known as the Lotharingian Movement (see The Lion and the Lily page 14 and Guardians of the Forest page 29). Apart from a shared desire to be free from strict interpretations of the Peripheral Code concerning interfering with mundanes, in Hermetic terms, they share little culturally or politically with the Flemish covenants. The Coenobium magi mainly see themselves as set apart from the rest of the Provençal Tribunal. Their mundane servants consider themselves part of neither the distant Holy Roman Empire, nor tributary to the Counts of Barcelona. The current Provençal political situation is to their advantage, and overall they feel there is no incentive to join a gang of northern secessionists.

Similarly, Alazais, the Chief Redcap and leader of the Coenobium, has no plans for her covenant to strike out on its own and form a separatist southern Tribunal. To do so would require the fragmentation of the multi-site network of sancta into at least four separate covenants, a move which would weaken the Coenobium's greatest strength, its united defensive stance. However, individual Tytalus magi may have strong cause to infiltrate the Coenobium and undermine its power, setting the stage for the a wide ranging conflict that may transect the Order (see "The Lotharingian Movement" insert in Chapter 10: Normandy Sagas of The Lion and the Lily, page 114–115 for further details).

of the region have left many ruins behind them as lasting reminders of the difficulties of Hermetic cooperation.

Recently, this cooperation has been more successful, however. The heirs of the various ruined covenants forged together their disparate holdings and abandoned many of the smaller sites to form a greater multi-site Hermetic community or coenobium. Although outwardly benign, this alliance has increased its influence throughout the region to the point where it has a stranglehold on most readily accessible magical resources.

The nominal mundane overlord of

Provence and the Kingdom of Arelat is Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor. He holds the somewhat empty title of the King of Arles but exerts only limited influence in practice through his imperial viceroy at Arles, the young prince of Orange, Raymond I of Baux. The most powerful magnate is the Catalan scion, Ramon Berenguer V, Count of Provence and now Forcalquier, recently released from imprisonment in Aragon in 1219. The young Count of Toulouse still claims the area known as the March of Provence, but many of the local lords acknowledge him only when it suits them. In

Current Covenants: The Coenobium Rhodanien

Secret Covenants: Fraxinetum Redux Ruined, Abandoned, or Lost Covenants: Barbegal, The Birds of Camargue, Castra Peccaius, Elisii Campi, Fraxinetum, Glanum (I and II), Telo Martius, Turris Masci, Portus Cottiae, Portus Termini, Yf

contrast to the Hermetic situation, much of the area is independent, controlled by minor lords or chartered towns such as the great river communes of Arles and Avignon. So far the region has escaped the devastation of the Albigensian Crusade, although several of its communes (and perhaps some of its magi) have lent discreet aid to both sides of the conflict.