Siwa Oasis

Well-suited for magi interested in exploring the mysteries of the deserts and Egypt, Siwa Oasis provides an isolated base of operations which is in Egypt, but sufficiently distant to be ignored by the politics of Cairo and the surrounding cities. It has a Magic aura of 3.

It was once the oracle of the Carthaginian and Garamantian god Ammon, and the site of a pilgrimage of Alexander the Great, and people have lived at Siwa Oasis for nearly two thousand years. However, as time progressed, even the great oracle slowly went into decline and eventually no priests maintained the temples, a process hastened by Justinian's decree in 532. The people there weathered the conquering wave of Bedouin tribesmen which washed over North Africa to establish the great caliphate in 708, and stood as an island within the sea of Islamic culture. They did not convert to Islam until late in the 12th century, and kept an insular culture, protecting their way of life and the oasis.

The number of people living at the oasis on a permanent basis dwindled, until roughly seven families numbering approximately 200 people remained in 1200. The forty adult men of the group decided they could not securely hold the village at the ancient oracle temple, and constructed a new fortified village at the current site. The members of this community still keep the date palm orchards and gardens they previously held, but have a safer home within Siwa's gates.

This section gives a series of story seeds showing how player magi could take over the buildings and establish the covenants, recruit grogs, discover the vis sources, and learn how to harvest the vis sources.

The covenant site is described through the following Boons and Hooks, further details of which can be found in the Covenants supplement.

While not a proper castle in the European sense, Siwa is sufficiently enclosed and gated to act as a fortress against all but the most overwhelming forces and those bearing heavy siege engines. Its salt mud hardens into cement-like bricks, and the residents build upward, their homes creating a sort of casement wall and ringworks. In most places, this would qualify for the Castle and Ringworks Hooks, but in Siwa, the powers near enough to be threatened by it are the Bedouin tribes, who are nomadic and do not worry about the site. They may cause trouble from time to time, but not enough to merit a covenant Hook, unless the troupe decides to make conflict with the Bedouin a more important feature of the saga.

Poverty (Minor Resources Hook): The oasis community survives by trading dates and charging rest fees to caravans. This provides enough to sustain the population and maintain repairs, but it doesn't buy Venetian glassware for laboratories.

Multiple Sites (Minor Resources Hook): Laboratories may be established at three different sites and the village of Siwa proper.

Road (Minor Site Hook): Siwa Oasis is en route to Alexandria and Cairo for caravans traveling in and out of the Great Desert to the west on the Garamantian Road. These caravans regularly stop at the springs of the oasis to rest and recuperate. Some travelers pass through Siwa on their way to Mecca.

Tribunal Border (Major External Relations Hook): Siwa's location in Egypt puts it outside of normal Tribunal boundaries. Is part of the Roman Tribunal? The Levant Tribunal? The Theban Tribunal? Or will it be

a part of something it completely different?

Unsafe (Minor External Relations Hook): Crusaders. Moors. Deserts for days in any direction. Raiding Berber tribesmen. Thirst. Starvation. Blazing sun. Need we go on? Only the most desperate or driven Redcap visits Siwa Oasis.

Difficult Access (Minor Site Boon): It requires eight days' travel through the desert, along the Sikkit al-Sultan caravan route to the east, to reach Alexandria. It is a twelve-day journey to the southeast to reach the inhabited oasis of Bahriyah. Seventy-five leagues to the west, along the Garamantian Road through the Great Sand Sea, is the oasis of Awdjila. Travel through the Great Sand Sea is hard, and many would prefer to go north, to the coast, travel by sea to the villages near the ruins of Cyrene, and then travel the 30 leagues south-southeast to Awdjila.

Edifices (Minor Fortification Boon): The Siwa Oasis village rises about two to three stories at this point. Its narrow streets allow for a single laden donkey to pass. It is impressive and imposing, rising out of the sands of the oasis.

Important Building (Minor Fortification Boon): Built from cut stone, the temple fort of the main Oracle of Ammon stands at the abandoned village of Aghurmi, atop a very large rock. It has a Magic aura of 3 and is surrounded by approximately a dozen smaller structures in various states of repair. A small brick watchtower is here, a partial brick wall, and Alexander's Stele. A deep well is cut into the rock at the bottom of a staircase within the Temple.

Important Building (Minor Fortification Boon): The lesser Temple of the Oracle of Ammon stands within the abandoned village of Abu Sharef, near the shores of the salt lake of Al-Zaytun. It is constructed from well-dressed stone, with walls over a meter thick in places. It has a Magic aura of 3, with sufficient chambers to act as both sanctum and laboratory.

Important Building (Minor Fortification Boon): Another lesser Temple of the Oracle of Ammon stands in Bilad al-Rum, at the base of a hill near the western edge of the oasis and the abandoned village of Khamisah. It is built with well-dressed stone, and has a large number of rock-cut tombs in the nearby hill, as well as several ancient quarries. This rectangular temple also enjoys a Magic aura of 3 and has three grand halls that could act as both sanctum and laboratory. There is a single brick outbuilding nearby, close to the cliffside.

Peasants (Free Residents Boon): The Siwan villagers are hardworking men and women. Capable with simple weapons, but not disciplined warriors, the men live on a rough frontier where raiding tribesmen are commonplace.

Strong Community (Minor Residents Boon): The survival of the Siwan villagers depends on their close-knit sense of community. They view most outsiders with distrust and do not allow any but the most honored guests to enter the gates of the Siwa Oasis village. In the village and among themselves, they speak the Tamazight language of the Berbers, but the elders, those who deal with caravans, or who venture out to trade also speak Arabic.

Ungoverned (Minor External Relations Boon): Although nominally ruled by the sultan in Cairo, no governor or official has ever tried to exercise authority here, and the wave of Islamic conquerors failed to breach the defenses. The inhabitants consider themselves independent.

With seven Boons and seven Hooks, there is room for Siwa to be customized by magi living there by adding a balance of Boons and Hooks. Those troupes looking

for additional Hooks might consider Castle, as discussed earlier; the minor version of Natural Disaster, where locusts attack the date palm harvest; or the minor version of the Site Hook: Regio, where a version of the temples exist within a Regio the magi have not fully explored or even discovered yet.

The inhabitants of the fortified village of Siwa could act as the covenfolk for Siwa Oasis covenant. Roughly 220 people live here in seven families, and the majority only recently converted to Islam. Many might still cling to pagan beliefs, or there might be an odd holdout. They keep the gardens and date palm orchards and collect rest fees from caravans that pass through. They have three primary divisions.

The sheikhs, seven to ten wealthy landowners and elders of the families who guide the community, act as a council, overseeing affairs.

The zaggalah (singular "zaggal"), are the "club-wielders," the young men of ages twenty to forty who do not sleep inside the village walls, but enter in emergencies or during the day. They work the fields and deal with travelers, remaining a part of the village but outside it until they marry. The new family's home is then added atop the walls of the village.

The khadim are the special guard of the Sheikhs. They are drawn from the zaggalah and not permitted to marry until they are released from service. Their employment is renewed each year and they also help enforce the laws of the village.

Other notable inhabitants include the old wise women who help maintain the homes and keep the village's stories or the firekeeper, an old man chosen to monitor not only the primary gate, but tend a small fire kept there for the whole of the village to light their household hearths.

Potential companions at Siwa Oasis include a Folk Witch or a Berber treasure hunter.

Aznag ag Tannan

A renowned and capable Berber treasure hunter, Aznag specializes in surviving the rigors of traveling in the desert, locating ruins amidst the sands and returning to civilization with the trinkets and objects men desire. He's a canny and slick operator who works hard to never reveal the secrets of his methods.