Hermetic Culture

Unlike their northern neighbors, the magi of Provençal have lived easily until recently, generally remaining apart or hidden from settled mundane society in the southern wilderness and the bastions of the Pyrenees. The feudal society dominating the north exists here in a softer form, with emphasis placed more on paratge, the individual bonds and mutual responsibility between nobles, rather than the more hierarchical feudal culture of the north where it is harder for magi to hide from liege lord relationships. The Albigensian Crusade has now fragmented the structure and culture of the south while changing the entire mundane political landscape. Whether the Hermetic magi will retain their existing traditions or become more influenced by their more aggressive northern sodales, who ape feudalism even in Hermetic society (see The Lion & the Lily) remains to be seen.

This book presents a Provençal Tribunal of just over a hundred magi. Not all the individual magi or apprentices in each covenant have been described, leaving room for player magi to have lived or been apprenticed in one of the existing covenants. Other covenants exist, one of which may belong to the player characters.

One unusual aspect of the Provençal Tribunal is that covenant oaths are by the Peripheral Code enforceable by Tribunal rulings. This leads to many minor internal disputes which would in other Tribunals be resolved by certamen or by the covenant councils being brought to the attention of the whole Tribunal.

Compared to the hurdles set before magi in the Rhine or Normandy Tribunals, founding a Provençal covenant is straightforward and relatively unrestricted. A group of magi may meet, agree to work with each other toward a common goal, draw up a suitable charter detailing their oath of covenant, and together swear to the oath—the act of taking an oath together being the most important component. The only legal aspect of concern is the requirement demanding a Quaesitor notarizes the charter, which renders the contents of the charter legally enforceable under the Peripheral Code, but some groups of magi delay this formality.

The covenant's creation does not need to be brought to the attention of the Tribunal for any form of formal approval, but it is considered good manners to notify the local Mercer House and send a representative to the next Tribunal meeting to announce the covenant's formation. This makes establishing a new Hermetic settlement simple, but as a consequence of the relative lack of safeguards many promising covenants are short-lived and the Provençal landscape is littered with

This book details a Tribunal where it is assumed the default Hermetic culture as presented in Ars Magica Fifth Edition is the norm. Thus, magi live in loose covenants of allied individuals, generally far removed from mundane society, and communicate with each other through a loose Redcap network. Tribunal meetings occur every seven years and consist of a gathering of representatives from each covenant, overseen by the oldest magus in the Tribunal, the Praeco, and run by the Chief Quaesitor, elected at the close of each gathering. Vis is available to those willing to harvest or fight for it, but not so abundant as to be without value, nor scarce enough to require communal rationing or open conflict over its distribution. Relationships with mundane nobility and the Church exist but are not actively encouraged—recent developments have forced magi to take a stance on issues long thought beneath their notice. Finally, the Code is neither strictly enforced nor observed more in the breach.

a disproportionate number of failed and abandoned covenants.

One notable local peculiarity is the looser definition of a covenant: some Provençal covenants are spread over multiple locations. Indeed, in some cases all the magi live separately and only meet in council when necessary. Castra Solis is one example, where the Praeco and her filia are members of the covenant although they live at a distance near Mimizan and in Poitiers respectively. Another covenant, the Coenobium, has multiple sites scattered throughout the east of the Tribunal.

In order to be considered a resident of the Tribunal, magi must have attended one of the last three Tribunals, or be granted the status by a vote at their first Tribunal. Magi Gauntleted in the Tribunal are automatically considered residents until three Tribunals have passed with them absent from the Tribunal meeting. If immigrants establish a covenant between Tribunals, the magi must either register with both the Redcaps and Praeco or with their closest neighbor; if they want to register with a neighbor, a Redcap leads them if they do not know the closest neighbor's site.

Magi who have registered as resident in the Tribunal are considered residents until they claim residency in another Tribunal or attend and vote at another Tribunal's gathering. Magi claiming residency in a different Tribunal must register their departure from Provençal with either the Provençal Redcaps or the Praeco prior to voting in another Tribunal's gathering, or they are found in violation of the Peripheral Code.