Style, Symbolism, and Hidden Messages

The masons jealously guard the mysteries of their trade: the secrets of numbers, angles, and proportion that turn a simple building into a work of divine beauty. But these secrets can, by the insightful observer, be decoded and great knowledge gained. The Covenants supplement introduces the concept of the Great Work, a building or other construction that can be studied as a summa or tractatus. Any large construction costing 100 Mythic Pounds or more can be used as a Great Work (Covenants, page 102).

There are no special rules for investing a building with knowledge, though a stone mason instructed to create a Great Work needs rudimentary knowledge of the subject matter. A character must be able to spend time at the Great Work, and perceive the medium through which the knowledge is transmitted, in order to study from it.

This chapter makes few assumptions about where the tower is situated, and troupes should pick the kind of location that best supports the stories they want to tell.