Cults & Factions of Provence

Mystery Cults are extremely important in the politics of the Provençal Tribunal. From the Mystery Houses, there are Bjornaer magi within the Coenobium (Chapter 8: Arelat), a clutch of Criamon magi and many Verditii magi in Narbonnais (Chapter 7), another Verditius magus in Toulouse (Chapter 4), and two powerful Merinita with their own variations on their House's secrets: the Praeco Dama and Luc of the Perpignan. There is also a renegade tradition forced from House Criamon and accepted in to House Ex Miscellanea, the Gorgiastic Cathars. These groups' ambitions transcend covenants, and are part of the wider Hermetic Culture.

Most of the magi at Castra Solis staunchly support the Legion of Mithras (see The Mysteries Revised Edition, pages 118–122) and it is known the covenant is one of their bases of power. Many high-ranking initiates within the Order think the rumored Great Temple lies somewhere in France, perhaps even the very Mithraic temple Castra Solis was built to protect (see Chapter 5: Gascony: Castra Solis). However, the Legion existed long before the construction of the now-famous covenant, so perhaps not.

The Mithraians in House Flambeau are in the main Christian (See Houses of Hermes: Societates, pages 16–19 for a description of the Mithraic faction). A few may actually worship the ancient pagan deity, but they

Hermetic Integration of the Via Mercuria

Remaining accounts of the magical practices of the Mercurian priests are sketchy and only veiled accounts of the effects of their rituals can be inferred from the historical record. The largest collection of texts detailing the origins of the Order of Hermes and its precursor, the Cult of Mercury, are securely stored in the great library of Fenicil in the vaults of Magvillus, and access is restricted for all but the inner circle of Quaesitores. Seekers investigating the lost secrets of Roman Road Magic may petition the Quaesitors for a chance to study the Mercurian archives in the hope of gleaning a text capable of granting an Insight, but they are likely to be asked to perform a great service in return, even if they are members of House Guernicus.

One source of Insight is detailed here discovery of the existence of the Link the Rent Path minor ritual may lead to the conclusion there must exist a greater Mercurian ritual capable of creating a new magical Roman road, and one of the surviving texts on early Mercurian lore may briefly mention a ritual, named Set the Stones of the Via, strongly meriting further investigation.

Hermetic investigation of ancient Mercurian relics such as milliaria magica, lapides mercurii or even an intact Via Mercuria from one of the major roads in the region may provide other sources of Insight into the secrets of True Mercurian Road Magic. Some Hermetic historians believe there was once a lapis mercurius in a Mercurian temple in the city of Saint Jean Piedde-Port in the Pyrenees, now lost.

New Range: Via Mercuria

A magus may cast spells reaching anyone or anything on a road or path connected to him by an unbroken network of via mercuria consisting of a series of milliaria magica or lapides mercurii, provided he can sense the target somehow. Unlike the Neo-Mercurian Road Magic Range: Road Network (The Mysteries Revised Edition, page 116), bridges and fords do not break a via mercuria. The roads still terminate in yards and such unless the building contains a linked lapis mercurius.

For purposes of spell level calculation, Via Mercuria is the same level as Arcane Connection, and requires Ritual magic.

New Duration: Via Mercuria

The spell continues for as long as the character journeys along a via mercuria or network. The travel must be by natural means available to the caster or target usually by foot, horseback or in a drawn wagon. A Bjornaer with a heartbeast capable of flight can travel in his animal form without canceling the spell, as can characters shapeshifted into similar forms, like the Redcaps of the Milvi Antiquiti. Any use of magical transportation such as magical flight granted by Wings of the Soaring Wind or the use of such spells as Seven League Stride or Leap of Homecoming cancels the spell.

The duration can be no longer than a year, and although resting at night within view of a milliarium magicum or lapis mercurius is allowed, the spell ends if the target abandons the via network. The spell also ends if the caster becomes lost, dies, or otherwise leaves the physical world through Twilight or regiones. It is equivalent in level to Moon, but requires Ritual magic.

New Target: Via Mercuria

This targets a network of viae mercuriae, and anyone or anything on it or within sight of its milliaria magica or lapides mercurii. Unlike the Neo-Mercurian Target: Road Network (The Mysteries Revised Edition, page 116), bridges and fords do not break a via mercuria. The roads still terminate at yards unless the building contains a linked lapis mercurius.

For purposes of spell level calculation, Via Mercuria is the same level as Boundary, and requires Ritual magic.

keep this secret well; the majority regard Mithras as an allegorical and magical symbol for Christ, with a very few practicing a form of Holy Magic. The Mithraian faction within House Flambeau are influential at the domus magna and throughout the Tribunal, and claim to be the true heirs to the legacy of Flambeau, opposing the Mercurian faction who are based at Aedes Mercurii and who trace their descent to Apromor and his rekindling of the Cult of Mercury and ancient Roman religion. The two cults despise each other, with the Mithraians adopting an aggressively Christian stance, yet remaining willing to use force to resist the Crusade if needed, as opposed to the pagan Mercurians' policy of strict non-intervention. While the Mercurians seek to keep their covenants hidden, the Mithraians favor a more proactive defense. Some have categorized the Mithraians as the "militant" Flambeau, and the Mercurians as the "spiritual" Flambeau, but that is unfair; many of the Mithraians are exceptionally pious and devoted Christians, and some have been covertly fighting in the Reconquista in Iberia, no matter how great their respect for the Code of Hermes.

The Mithraians can often be individualistic, though many have joined the Milites and sworn the chivalric oath of service before Primus Garus (See Houses of Hermes: Societates, pages 15–16). The Mithraians are divided in their attitude to the rise of the Milites, but united in their absolute contempt for the Flambeau of the Cult of Mercury and their quiet determination to thwart the pretensions of Aedes Mercurii to the title of domus magna, and to defeat the political ambitions of their pagan brethren in anyway possible.

Aedes Mercurii serves as the fractious and confused center of what now remains of the former Cult of Mercury (see Houses of Hermes: Societates pages 16–17) in the Provençal Tribunal. They possess many ancient magical secrets, left over and guarded jealously from the early history of the Cult before it divided and became the Neo-Mercurians of other Tribunals (see The Mysteries Revised Edition, pages 114–117). It is possible that magi who show exceptional promise will be invited to join the Cult of Mercury, and to be initiated into its secrets.

The cult in Provence considers itself to be the true descendants of the ancient Mercurian Cult of Rome; they are antagonistic toward the Neo-Mercurian orders, whom they see as traitors and deluded fools. Within the Tribunal the priests (flamen) of the cult hold ceremonial positions by ancient tradition; despite their avowed paganism they perform rites that are largely uncontested because of the weight of tradition. At the start of each day of the Tribunal meeting they wear their elaborate masks and colorful robes of office. They are expected to speak for "the gods" in Hermetic ceremonies, reading signs and omens. Few magi take them seriously these days, and the official flamen at Tribunal is generally considered as irrelevant, an amusing piece of Hermetic tradition, or, to the more pious magi of Castra Solis, as blasphemous and worthy only of contempt. Yet the ancient tradition continues, and through the Cult the flamen

Ease Factor: 21 (Major Virtue: Mercurian Magic known to the Mystagogue)

Script Bonus: +18

Script Details: To initiate a follower into the virtue Mercurian Magic, the mystagogue must spend at least a full season traveling the paths of the ancient Roman roads with the Initiate (Mystagogue's time, +3); arriving at an ancient Temple of the Cult of Mercury (such as Aedes Mercurii), and performing the following ceremony on May 15th, the date of the ancient festival of Mercuralia (+3): the Initiate's head is sprinkled with water won from the spirit guarding the ancient Mercurian well on a Quest into a shrouded Magical regio at the site Porta Capena on the Appian Way (+3); she forswears any allegiance to her former faith and dedicates herself to the old pagan gods of Rome, acquiring the Pagan Major Story Flaw (+9) (see Houses of Hermes: True Lineages, page 109).

wield considerable personal influence and secret power.

The revitalization of the Mercurian religion began in the mountains of the Pyrenees at Val Negra and was led by Priamitus of Mercere, supported by Apromor of Flambeau. The group had its heyday in the early 900s, and soon after trickles of its secret knowledge began to spread, and other newer Mystery cults with magic derived from theirs began to form. By the time of the Schism War, the Cult of Mercury had fractured into many smaller and more disparate groups, each with their own take on the former cult. They focus on recovering the 37 Great Rites used by the ancient Mercurian priesthood and keeping the old Roman ways alive within the Order of Hermes. A few of them also know how to cast non-Hermetic Mercurian rituals (see Houses of Hermes: True Lineages, pages 76–77), and do so occasionally as part of their pagan religious traditions, though only the most fanatically loyal cult members are ever included in these ceremonies.

The Mercurians are rigorously isolationist with regards to mundane society, and have no desire to be involved with either Cathars or Church, holding that magi have no business interfering in mundane matters. They are arch-conservatives, and while they dream of a return of the glory that was Rome, they aim to keep the Order as disengaged from the mundane world as possible. They despise the Mithraian faction in House Flambeau, whom they see as falsely taking the title of domus magna for Castra Solis when Aedes Mercurii is clearly the true heir to the lost covenant of Val Negra.

A small chapter of these chivalrous magi (described in The Mysteries Revised Edition, pages 131–132) thrives among the Ostal des Exiles in the Toulousain, with members in other covenants. (Chapter 4: Toulouse; Ostal des Exiles) They are led by Gilbert of Flambeau and have strong links with Rhine and Normandy magi of the cult. If you are not using the Knights of the Green Stone in your saga, you can safely ignore them.

The origins of one of the most important Mystery cults of the region lie with the mater of the current Praeco, Dama of Merinita, in the late 800s. Not much is known about this maga, and Dama herself does not speak of her even to other members of the cult, but she is said to have come from the Thebes Tribunal. She lived in a covenant in the Médoc that she inherited (or stole) from Maugris of Diedne. She taught her magical secrets to her filii, Marie and Dama, and had strong ties to folk witches.

The cult is dedicated to the advancement of women, and gained most of its imagery and mystery from three sources: the many folk witches who live in southwestern France, the particular reverence for Mary Magdalene and other female saints in the region, especially through the propagation of the peculiar Black Madonna image which subverts the male-dominated Church and culturally roots holy women as strange and almost alien; and thirdly the patronage of Eleanor of Aquitaine, who those associated with the cult believe to have been at least a staunch supporter if not herself also a magical practitioner. (There are some, including Dama's filia Marie of Poitiers, who say Eleanor was a folk witch who brought back her own secrets to the cult from her uncle's court in the Holy Land).

The cult includes some hedge wizards as well, and unGifted women who possess supernatural abilities and are thus granted ceremonial and organizational membership. The cult is not widely known, but can be uncovered with a cursory investigation; it is obscure, but not secret. Easily available information suggests that the Praeco Dama

These Virtues are Initiated by the cult of the Matres and Matrones, and are probably only found among their members or those descended from them.

The Feminine Gift

This Minor Hermetic or Supernatural Virtue gives a normally-Gifted character the Gentle Gift with respect to female humans, the Blatant Gift with respect to male humans, and leaves the Gift unaffected for all others, including animals and any creature with supernatural Might. It takes men as long to get used to her as it takes them to get used to someone with the Blatant Gift.

Feminine Sympathy

Feminine Sympathy is a Minor or Major Supernatural Virtue giving the initiate a Feminine Sympathy Trait with a score of +1 (minor) or +3 (major). As described in Realms of Power: Faerie pages 102–104, this Trait may be added to non-Supernatural Abilities as a specialty when it is applicable, in this case when the character directly affects another woman. For example, to determine what a character knows about a maga in the Tribunal, a character with Feminine Sympathy +3 could add three to her Organization Lore roll in lieu of a specialty. All rolls using this Trait become uses of a faerie power, affected by auras and realm interaction penalties, and must use stress dice. Botches give a Warping Point for each 0 rolled. The Trait increases with experience like an Ability (though it cannot exceed the character's Warping Score), and also when the player rolls a 1 on the stress roll. It decreases when the player rolls a 0 when checking for a botch with this Trait.

Dark Magic

This Minor Supernatural Virtue allows the caster to benefit from Magic, Faerie, and Infernal auras, as if her powers were aligned to all three realms, and she is protected against gaining Warping Points from exposure to any of those auras. However, taking advantage of a foreign aura using this Virtue subtly taints the application of her magic, so that Divine and Infernal powers that sense holiness or unholiness recognize the character's dark influence as unholy. This Virtue is thought to be related to Chthonic Magic, and may have originally come to the Order and the cult from the Witches of Thessaly.

A short lived and controversial alliance led by the Cathar sympathizer, Tolomae of Bellaquin, this group advocated open war against the Church in order to prevent the loss of Hermetic holdings in Provençal. Considered extremely dangerous by the majority of magi and renounced by both the conservative Mercurians of Aedes Mercuriae and the pragmatists of the Coenobium, House Jerbiton expelled Tolomae and declared him orbus (no longer a member of the House) in 1216. Tolomae was a suspect in the murder of the papal legate, Pierre de Castelnaudry, but fled without answering the investigating Quaesitor's questions. He was Marched in early 1218 for repeatedly interfering with mundanes, and slain.

After his death, several of Tolomae's rumored supporters fled to other covenants or remain unaccounted for in the wake of the Albigensian crusade. They hide amongst the faidits, the dispossessed nobility of Langue d'Oc. Some magi wonder whether their cause will vengefully resurface in the near future, honed to bitterness by the recent catastrophe.

Leader of a ragtag bunch of outcasts and opportunistic routiers from the northern armies, Tres is a rusticarii (a Craft magus, see Houses of Hermes: Societates, page 130) who returned to the Tribunal of his birth seeking vengeance. He is described in Chapter 5: Gascony.

is involved and likely at the center of it. Alazais of Mercere, the Chief Redcap of the Tribunal and First Consul of the Coenobium in Arelat, is also rumored to be a member, as is Mariola of Tolosa Paratge, and Beatrice of Guernicus (who may well soon become Presiding Quaesitor) has suspected sympathies with it.

The three levels of Initiation into the Matres and Matrones each require a great deal of service to the cult and the community, as well as a deep understanding of the cult's lore, before the Initiate is allowed to progress. Few Initiates attain the highest rank, since the different tiers of Initiation are not only based on the worthiness of the Initiate but on other factors such as age and life experience, and advancing through the Mystery Cult is a saga-spanning journey. For most, the second level might be perceived as the highest level, as many of the cultists never choose to advance further.

Characters initiated into the first level are referred to privately as Sisters, and focus on interacting with the people of their communities, especially with non-magi. They must possess Organization Lore: Matres and Matrones 1, but there are no other requirements apart from the sacrifices inherent in the Initiation scripts. At this stage, women may be invited to initiate Venus's Blessing, The Feminine Gift (see New Virtues on page 29), or The Gentle Gift, and must take an oath to protect other women from harm.

Initiates into the second level are called Mothers (Matres) and take responsibility for the organization and spread of the cult and initiating new members. To qualify for this stage, the character must have a score of at least 3 in Organization Lore: Matres and Matrones, and have either given birth to a child or taken an apprentice. They may initiate Good Teacher or either the Minor or Major version of Feminine Sympathy (see sidebar), and tend to become as Driven as the cult's founder.

The recipients of the final level of initiation are the Matrons (Matrones), dedicated to advancing the cult's goals among magical organizations and with representatives of the supernatural realms. Any potential Matron must have a score of 6 in Organization Lore: Matres and Matrones, a Feminine Sympathy Trait of at least +3, must have raised a child or apprentice to maturity, and must be of an age to have undergone menopause. They learn either Intuition, Dark Magic (see sidebar), or Chthonic Magic (see Realms of Power: The Infernal, pages 123–124).

The Cathars hold a wide spectrum of beliefs, and argue and fragment on doctrinal issues. On the whole most Cathars are very open about their beliefs — they are not gnostic, that is they do not claim that special knowledge is needed for salvation. Among the many differing interpretations of the Cathar faith preached, there is a small mystery cult of theurgists, whose teachings ultimately derive from the Teachings of Criamon the Founder. They identify themselves as members of the Cathar Church, observe the Consolamentum, and honor the Perfecti, yet are in fact heretics even as far as most Cathars are concerned. As they are a Mystery Initiatory tradition and associated with the Magic Realm not the Divine, they have remained largely undetected, and they choose not to enter theological disputes with their "less enlightened" coreligionists. As such few Cathars recognize them as anything but brethren.

The origin of the Gorgiastic Cathars lies in the tenth century, with a renegade Criamon of deep religious devotion named Anaïs of Toulouse. Exposed to the early Christian documents circulated by Cathar scholars, she reinterpreted the traditional mystery of House Criamon (Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults). In her teachings the false creation of Lucifer has been molded by the intervention of the Divine toward harmony, but escaping to the sphairos remains the key to salvation. The path is not through the Enigma as understood by the House, however; to a Gorgiastic Cathar the hypostasis (Criamon's refuge outside time) is in fact a subtle trap, not part of the solution to escaping the cycles of time. Anaïs replaced the notion of reincarnation common among Criamon with that of transmigration; even at death, the soul does not escape the world and time, but is immediately reborn elsewhere. As such, the Criamon and Gorgiastic Cathars agree on the eternal recurrence of cycles of time, and of endless lives within time, but disagree on the escape route. To Anaïs nothing within time and space (immanent) can achieve escape (transcendence) without

For players who want their characters to have completed their apprenticeship in the Tribunal, the following magi would make suitable parentes for the characters.

Bjornaer

Bubulcus and Elornis One-Leg of the Coenobium

Bonisagus

Marcella of Stella Durus An unnamed Trianoman magus of the Coenobium

Criamon

Any of the four magi from Miniata Sophia

Ex Miscellanea

Ainza of Aedes Mercurii, Hermetic haruspex Any of the four Ex Miscellanea Sorginak eremites of the Pyrenees (although they cannot teach Folk Witch powers) Lavendarius of the Coenobium, Pralician Raimond of Tolosa Paratge, Gorgiastic Cathar

Rebecca of Mimizan or any fellow sorginak, folk witch (although they cannot teach the Hermetic Arts)

Tres, rustic magus, has two filii

Flambeau

Any of the many Flambeau magi of Castra Solis or Aedes Mercurii Cyprian of Tolosa Paratge Gilbert of the Faidits (raised Jerbiton) Renaud of Stella Durus (filius of Cyprian) Robert Vasquez of Bellaquin Unnamed magi of the Coenobium

Guernicus

raised, now Jerbiton) Fraxinus of Portus Termini Tibaut, the former Presiding Quaesitor, could have had an apprentice when he died in 1214, with the remaining years of his or her training finished by another.

Damocles of the Coenobium (Guernicus-

Jerbiton

Any of the many Jerbiton magi of the Coenobium, including Balthazar, Pola, or Romualdus Jean Marie of Stella Durus

Mariola and Carolus St. Tropez of Tolosa Paratge

Valgravian, Constantine, and Antionette LeBarre of Bellaquin

Mercere

Guillermo of Ara Maxima Nova Ophilio of Aedes Mercurii

Merinita

Jeanne of Ara Maxima Nova Luc of Ara Maxima Nova Etienne of Ara Maxima Nova Marie de France, Poitiers chapter of Castra Solis

Tremere

Protendus of Aedes Mercurii

Tytalus

Aucassin the Eremite may have trained an apprentice prior to disappearing. Ahmad ibn Nasr of Tytalus, Frainetum Oxioun of Aedes Mercuriae

Verditius

Ruberus of Verditius, Head of Confraternity of Roland, from Aedes Mercurii. Other Vulcan Cult Verditius are mentioned at the covenant but not named Rycas is not of the Tribunal, but often visits Adam Carpentiere of Tolosa Paratge

an external being's intervention. The only being who can allow salvation is therefore God, and only God can take the righteous to the sphairos. This was the purpose of the mission of Christ, and the path to apt action can be found in the teachings of the Gospels.

While other Christian Criamon may believe that the Dominion is in fact a force for harmony, extending time and therefore the chance to escape from the eternal cycles, Anaïs came to believe that the fall saw the corruption of the Dominion aura, which is associated with the false creator, Lucifer. She controversially asserted that the Dominion and Infernal were both flip sides of the same tarnished coin, and argued that the Magic Realm was the only way of reaching the true creator, God. As such her religious system is deeply theurgical, using magic as a religious practice to reach salvation.

Anaïs founded a lineage through her two apprentices, who shared her religious beliefs. While House Criamon never accepted the teachings, a number of primi were sympathetic, and some in the House still regards the Gorgiastic Cathars as kindred spirits seeking the Enigma in their own way, while others see them as dangerous and deceived individuals who are increasing strife and engaging in actions that are not apt. Anaïs was eventually expelled from House Criamon, and with her followers entered House Ex Miscellanea in 975; today only a handful remain, the majority in the Provençal Tribunal. They do not practice Enigmatic Wisdom, but have their own Organization Lore: Gorgiastic Cathars which doubles as a Theology ability for their strange belief system.

Gorgiastic Cathars as an Ex Miscellanea Tradition receive the Major Hermetic Flaw: Twilight Prone, the General Major Virtue Ghostly Warder (referred to as their 'Genius', a tutelary spirit), and the Minor Hermetic Virtue: Quiet Magic.