Greece

The west mainland of the Theban Tribunal is the famed land of Greece, home to the titans and gods of old, and liberally dotted with ancient sanctuaries and ruins. Many of the former gods, faeries, and ghosts still haunt the temples, the forests, and the mountains of this richly mythical land. The folk here — pious and superstitious in equal measure — are rightly wary of the various kinds of nymphs, guardian spirits, and restless dead that stalk the land at night. Most common among them are the enchanting nereids (see Chapter 10: Faerie Landscape, Nereids), who may be found in Greece in great numbers.

A thousand and a half years ago, Greece was the intellectual and spiritual heart of the ancient world. In the Byzantine era, and with the rise of Christianity, Greece waned in importance and fell under the under the shadow of great Constantinople. Historically, it has been a less-than-secure part of the empire. Pagan Slavs and later Christian Bulgarians have invaded from the north, and in the last hundred years or so it has been overrun and ravaged by Norman invaders from Sicily more than once. In the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade, Greece has fractured into four main kingdoms and duchies; with the exception of Epiros, they are crusader realms with Latin rulers.

Greece is bordered to the north by Bulgaria, to the west by the Adriatic and Ionian Seas, and to the east by the Aegean. There are so many gulfs and peninsulas that the coastline is thousands of miles long. There are no great rivers, mostly because there is seldom a place that is more than fifty miles from the sea, but also because the rainfall in summer is rather light, except for west of the Pindos Mountains. Inland, Greece consists mostly of mountains, and is generally forested with some plains. The coastal lands and plains are mostly fertile, and rich in grain and olives; the grain surplus of Greece was, until recently at least, sent to feed Constantinople. In the south, silk farming and production is the most profitable industry.

Epiros (meaning "mainland," as opposed to the Ionian islands) was at the fringe of the ancient Greek world, and so lacks traces of ancient Greece, for the most part. It consists of a large swathe of mostly mountainous terrain in the northwest of Greece, although the port city of Durazzo and the Via Egnatia leading east from it (see later) are of strategic importance.

The Principality of Epiros, currently the largest of Greece's new kingdoms, is a realm that was formed out of the Greek rebellion against the Latin Empire. Its creator was Michael Komnenos Doukas, cousin to Byzantine emperors Isaac II Angelos and Alexios III Angelos. As his name indicates, he was descended from the greatest families of the Byzantine Empire, and his rebellion against the Latins made him a potent figurehead. Originally serving the Latins in Morea and allied with Boniface of Montferrat, he rebelled and was severely defeated by William de Champlitte in the Battle of the Olive Grove (Koundouros) in 1205. Following this military humiliation, he retreated north to Arta in Epiros, where he founded a new realm.

Michael's rule was characterized by savagery and treachery, switching allegiances between the Latin and Orthodox Churches, and between his neighbors. In 1210 he attacked Thessaloniki in alliance with Venice, breaking faith with his son-in-law, the infant king Demetrios. He was later excommunicated by the pope after he crucified three Latin priests who had fallen into his hands. Despite several successes in taking territory from the Kingdom of Thessaloniki, he was ultimately forced to submit to Emperor Henry. In 1213 he began seizing territory along the Adriatic and Ionian coast from his former Venetian allies. In 1215 he was finally stabbed by one of his household staff, who was driven to the act by Michael's intolerable cruelty, and he died unmourned. His illegitimate son fled into exile, so he was succeeded by his half-brother Theodore Dukas, a recent arrival who had originally fled to Nicaea upon the fall of Constantinople and who defected to Epiros in 1210.

Theodore Dukas maintains the ruthless expansionism, and has taken Ohrid and the region of Pelagonia from the Bulgarians. In 1217 he captured the Latin emperor Peter de Courtenay, who was traveling from Durazzo on the Via Egnatia to Constantinople. Peter's fate is unknown, but many of his men were murdered or died in captivity, and Peter is presumed dead. Theodore, like Michael before him, has not yet taken on the title of emperor, but as he is moving steadily toward the city of Thessaloniki, it seems that Constantinople and the imperial throne is his ultimate goal. His ruthlessness, cruelty, and naked ambition have not won him many friends, but already much of the Kingdom of Thessaloniki has fallen to him, and with a powerful army of Frankish mercenaries under his command, it seems likely that Thessaloniki's young king, Demetrios, will soon lose his throne.

Michael Komnenos, fleeing the aforementioned battle of Koundouros, came to the relatively unimportant town of Arta, which he made the capital of Epiros and of his new realm. It lies on the site of the ancient Corinthian city of Ambracia, named after an Amazon princess and granddaughter of Apollon. Later, in the early Roman age, it was the capital of King Pyrrhus. Over the last 15 years Arta has swelled in size, with a steady stream of immigrants leaving moretroubled lands to the east and south, including Constantinople. Under the new lords of Epiros, a formidable new castle has sprung up; however due to the depravities and excommunication of Michael Komnenos, it has an Infernal aura and is guarded by a flock

of sinister ravens. The Divine auras of Arta's churches are correspondingly weak.

The Bridge of Arta

For as long as the citizens of Arta can recall, they have labored to bridge the River Arachthos. A team of 45 master builders, with 60 apprentices, toiled every day, only to find that their work collapsed into the waters at nightfall. After the arrival of Michael Komnenos, a great black raven accosted the chief mason by the river bank, insisting that he must sacrifice his fair wife if he wished to complete the bridge and avoid the wrath of his new master. The master builder agreed, but his plan to outsmart the devilish bird was thwarted. His wife perished in the bridge's foundations, laying a curse that when birds fall from the sky, so shall men fall from the bridge.

The graceful bridge, now completed in a pale stone, crosses the river in several long, slender arches. It has a perfidious Infernal aura of 2, and the great raven still watches over it. Any who cross the bridge have their Greedy Personality Trait increased by two, or gain it with a score of 2, until the following day. With a steady stream of merchants and townsfolk crossing the river, Arta's market has become a grubby and treacherous place.

It might be possible to fight off the foul bird, but this may cause the bridge to fall, earning the wrath of the ruler of Epiros.

Corfu, a large hilly island straddling the Ionian coast of Epiros, was until recently under the dominion of Venice, until Michael Komnenos wrested it from Venetian hands in 1214. The main port town is also named Corfu, or Korkyra by the Greeks, and it lies halfway down the eastern shore.

The Stone Ship of Corfu

Odysseus, the legendary hero and king of Ithaca, first arrived on Corfu — then called Scheria — when he was washed up on its shores. Later, he was given a magnificent Phaiakian ship by King Alcinous; it was unsinkable, could navigate through the thickest mist, and could be steered only by the thought of its captain. Poseidon, Odysseus' enemy, punished the Phaiakians by turning the ship into stone. This splendid galley, now comprised of solid dark granite, still stands above the waves just outside Corfu's harbor.

Each winter, a great storm arises on Corfu's eastern shore, and the ship moves again, seemingly manned by Odysseus and his crew. An army of tritones (see Chapter 6: The Islands, Aegaea) arrives, accompanied by tempestuous waves, and attempts to conquer or sink the ship. The ship is considered a source of vis owned by the Tribunal, since the tridents wielded by the tritones are Rego vis — if they can be claimed from their owners. Few volunteers come forward to gather the vis, however, since doing so requires participating in this stormy and deadly battle. Although the magi of Aegaea would seem most expert in this area, they claim that loyalty to their patron, a ruler of tritones, precludes them from participating. Instead, they seem to delight in persuading other magi to volunteer for this service, only offering cryptic clues as to how the watery army may be bested. Ex Miscellanea magi from the tradition of the Seirenes (see Houses of Hermes: Societates, page 137) have postulated that a siren song may free the stone ship from its mystical anchor, just as Odysseus himself was tempted by the sirens. The ship is surrounded by a Faerie aura of 2, rising to 4 during the winter storm.

Durazzo, or Dyrrhachium, is the largest city in Epiros, and one of its most ancient. It lies in a naturally protected harbor on the Adriatic Sea, and has thus been an important trading port since time immemorial; nowadays many ships ferry back and forth to Italy and Venice. Since it also lies on the west end of the Via Egnatia (see insert), the city forms an important link between the realms of Western Europe and the Orthodox East. Straddling these two worlds, it is a bustling and cosmopolitan trading center, with Italians, Venetians, Greeks, Bulgars, Jews, and Vlachs among its colorful and varied citizens. Durazzo fell under the dominion of the Republic of Venice in the wake of the Fourth Crusade in 1204, but it has since been taken by Epiros.

The two largest lakes of Greece are nestled amid the mountains in the north of Epiros. Lake Ohrid, the larger, is over twenty miles long; a passing Bjornaer magus once claimed that its crystal-clear deep blue waters were home to magnificent species of strange and magical fish. The Via Egnatia passes along the northern shore of the lake, through the venerable episcopal city of Ohrid. Ohrid is the former capital of the Bulgarian Empire and seat of an archbishopric, which is blessed with dozens of ancient churches. Although the settlements around the lake shore, including the placid monastery of St. Naum, have a strong Divine aura, a Magic aura prevails at the center of the lake, which is home to a potent genius loci.

A short distance to the southeast is the slightly smaller Lake Prespa. It is located higher in the mountains, and its waters feed Lake Ohrid through underground channels. Mostly uninhabited by humans, it has a Faerie aura and is home to many limniads, a kind of nereid (see Chapter 10: Faerie Landscape, Nereids) native to lakes and marshes. These fair maidens may sometimes be seen dancing on the lake through the early morning mist,

The most important road in the Theban Tribunal is the Via Egnatia, built in ancient times by the Roman Consul of Macedonia, Gnaeus Egnatius. Stretching nearly 700 miles from Durazzo on the Adriatic to Constantinople, the Queen of Cities, it winds its way through the mountains of northern Epiros before passing through the great city of Thessaloniki. It then skirts along the northern edges of the Aegean and the Marmara Sea through Thrace before reaching its destination, the gateway to the Black Sea and Asia Minor. Although the road is mostly in good condi-

tion, having been repaired and maintained by the Byzantine Empire for centuries, it can become impassable in places during rainy weather, especially in the hilly terrain of Epiros. The invading armies of Sicily traveled along the Via Egnatia, and in the wake of the Fourth Crusade the Latin Empire and its vassal states now depend heavily on it for contact and trade with the West. Since Theodore Komnenos, the ruler of Epiros, now controls much of the Western stretch of the road, he is in a position to effectively stifle the Latin Empire, should he so wish.

or bathing or swimming in it. They have been known to seduce travelers on the Via Egnatia, a few miles away. A small handful of such weak-willed men, most struck dumb or witless, may be found living with the limniads in a humdrum lakeside settlement, where many piles of treasure taken from entranced merchants on the road are hiden. Their children with the limniads are mostly ill-formed or ill-tempered. A small island in the lake with a Divine aura, known as Golem Grad (Snake Island), is inhabited by pious folk and is infested with snakes. The limniads fear the snakes and so stay away from the place.

Mount Pelister

A lush, pine-covered peak more than 8000 feet high overlooks Monastiri, an ancient city a dozen miles to the east of the lakes, from the east. The foot of Mount Pelister, by the River Dragor, is one of the rumored locations of the famed Basilica of Ten Thousand Columns (see Ancient Magic, page 121), one of the most important temples to Apollon and formerly home to a cult of Hyperborean wizards.

The Pindos Mountains form the long spine of Greece, running north-south between Epiros and Thessaly as far south as the Gulf of Corinth. Much of it is wilderness, consisting of steep peaks, canyons, forests of pine and beech, and high meadows. The superstitious folk that do live here are earthy Vlachs (see Chapter 4: Culture and Customs, Ethnic Groups), partially nomadic goat and sheep herders, with some farmers, weavers, and traders.

Dodona

High in a valley on the western edge of the Pindos, in a region reckoned by Aristotle to be where the Greek peoples first originated, lies the most ancient sanctuary in Greece, Dodona. In the time before the Olympian gods, it was an oracle dedicated to the worship of the titaness Rhea, identified with the mother goddess. Her priestesses received communications by listening to the rustling of the leaves of the oaks in the sacred grove. The site was later converted to the worship of Zeus, with a grand temple built by King Pyrrhus. A local bishop cut down the last remaining oak in the fifth century.

Dodona is a timeless and deserted place, littered with a few ruins from Roman times, most notably a large amphitheater. The grove has a Magic aura of 4. The Seekers of the Fallen (see Chapter 9: Magical Landscape) believe that many ancient secrets of the titans are hidden here; if they are right, then the entrance to the magical Garden of Eden might be located here in a regio. Several decades ago, they replanted the oak trees in the grove. On the far side of the grove, before the mountainside, stands an arch which the Seekers have repaired, flanked on either side by rampant lions of stone. It is reckoned to be a gateway to a Magic regio, guarded by the lions, but the Seekers have not yet managed to activate it.

The northeastern realms of Greece lie between the Aegean Sea and Bulgaria. Macedonia, the more northeasterly region and the homeland of Alexander the Great, is separated from Thessaly by the Cambunian Mountains. Thessaly, including Larissa, has now mostly been conquered by the Principality of Epiros under Theodore Komnenos.

Following his failure to be elected Latin Emperor, Boniface of Montferrat set out to capture Thessaloniki, the second-largest city of the former Byzantine Empire. It proved unnecessary, for he was greeted with joy by the populace. Likewise in Macedonia and in Thessaly, the Greeks treated him as a conquering hero, liberating them from a series of incompetent and corrupt emperors. Many towns threw open their gates to him and accepted his rule with rejoicing, an auspicious beginning to his reign. He was assisted by holding a legitimate claim to the territory, through his brother Renier's marriage to Maria Komnenos in 1180. His own marriage to Margaret of Hungary, widow of Emperor Isaac II Angelos, further cemented his position. Thus was the Kingdom of Thessaloniki founded. Despite Boniface coming close to war with Emperor Baldwin, who also coveted the city of Thessaloniki, the Venetians negotiated peace between the two Latin states.

After his death in 1207 (see Chapter 12: Infernal Landscape, The Fate of the Crusaders), Boniface left as heir an infant son by Margaret, Demetrios. Named after the patron saint of Thessaloniki, the boy was only two years old at the time of his father's death. With a former Angelos as mother, he is popular with the great Greek families and citizens of the city. Margaret's regency enjoyed popular support, though she swiftly married Nicholas St. Omer, one of the lords of Thebes (where she now resides). Upon Margaret's re-marriage, the Latin emperor Henry appointed his younger brother Eustace as regent to protect Demetrios, and married him to the daughter of Michael Komnenos (see earlier) to try and end the conflict between Thessaloniki and Epiros.

Demetrios was crowned at the age of four in 1209. Henry called the Thessalonian lords to swear loyalty to the child, but the Frankish nobles largely ignored this, as many favored the claim of William VI, Marquis of Montferrat. Nevertheless, he forced their submission, and a year later intervened to save the young king from an alliance between the Venetians, Bulgarians, and Epiros. On Henry's death in 1216, Emperor Peter de Courtenay accepted William's claim to the title and Margaret fled into exile, leaving Demetrios in the city. Peter's presumed

The Latin emperor Henry marched on Thessaloniki to demand its submission in 1209, but the inhabitants closed the gates against him. Margaret had been forced to stand down as regent by Count Oberto II of Biandrate, who was plotting to replace Demetrios with Boniface's son by his first wife Helena del Bosco, William VI, Marquis of Montferrat. It became clear that Oberto was in league with Emperor Henry. Following several days of negotiations, Henry was admitted to the city. Oberto's plan fell apart immediately, for on speaking with Margaret, Henry saw the justice of her cause and seized the treacherous count. He was loaded with chains and imprisoned in the castle at Serres. Released some years later, Oberto swore vengeance on the emperor, and may have been responsible for his murder by poisoning in 1216. A tireless advocate of the pretender William's claims to the crown of Thessaloniki, Oberto is still a deadly enemy to King Demetrios.

death at the hands of the ruler of Epiros has allowed Demetrios to continue as king, and he is now aged 15. However, Epiros has begun a concerted attack on the Kingdom of Thessaloniki, and much territory has already been lost. It seems unlikely the city can hold out much longer, with the armies of Epiros closing in from the north and the west, and with continual heavy fighting.

The Kingdom of Thessaloniki enjoys much better relations with its Greek subjects than the Latin Empire. Its forces contain a majority of Byzantine troops as well as having numerous Frankish lords and mercenaries of uncertain loyalty to their king, but concerned with their own estates' survival. As the army of Epiros employs large numbers of Frankish mercenaries, this leads to the irony of a Frankish kingdom with a largely Greek army fighting a Greek principality with a largely Frankish army. The system established by Boniface is still in place, all vassals owing one season of garrison duty and one season of military service per year, and giving exactly the same rights and dues to Greeks as to Latins. The Latin archbishop of Thessaloniki is a noted friend and supporter of King Demetrios, having tutored him in his youth, and Thessaloniki has both Orthodox and Latin churches peacefully coexisting, although the Latin hierarchy predominates.

The Macedonian king Cassander founded a city near to the site of ancient Therma in the fourth century BC, on the Gulf of Therma at the northwestern corner of the Aegean Sea. He named it Thessaloniki after his wife, who was a half-sister of Alexander the Great. In Roman times the city prospered as a provincial capital at the same time the Via Egnatia was built. Christianity came very early to the city with St. Paul the Apostle, who preached in its synagogues. After fleeing the city, he wrote two epistles (letters) to the pious folk of Thessaloniki, which are now two books from the New Testament named Thessalonians. In the ninth century, the gospel was carried from here to Bulgaria by the brother saints Cyril and Methodius.

Visitors from Western lands are astonished to find Thessaloniki a vast and magnificent city of more than 100,000 souls. It is larger than Paris, yet it is only the second city of the former empire. Its size and influence are such that it was dubbed the "Co-Queen" of the empire (the "Queen of Cities," of course, being Constantinople). The south side of the city, facing the sea, consists of a great mile-long harbor; the other three sides are surrounded by huge Byzantine walls. Within, this grand city of merchants, scholars, and artists boasts many splendid monuments, including ancient Roman arches and statues, a huge hippodrome, and an imperial mint. The Rotunda of St. George, the oldest church in Greece, has a squat cylindrical shape and excessively thick walls, which has

allowed it to withstand the ravages of time. The Hagia Sophia — a less-grandiose copy of Constantinople's famous church — has recently been converted to the Western Church and is now the cathedral of Thessaloniki. It is, however, overshadowed by Thessaloniki's foremost church, the Hagios Demetrios (Church of St. Demetrios). Built atop the old Roman forum, it is an ancient basilica and shrine of the city's patron saint (see later). The famous Fair of St. Demetrios is held for six days in October, outside the city walls, during which time merchants from far-flung reaches of Europe congregate here to trade with Arabs and Jews from Africa and the Levant. Most of the citizens of Thessaloniki are Greeks, but there are small communities of Italian merchants and Jews.

Thessaloniki was last invaded in 1185, when the Norman ruler of Sicily, William II, conquered Durazzo and subsequently mounted a campaign across northern Greece, in an act of open rebellion against the depraved emperor Andronikos Komnenos. During the looting many thousands were slain, but the city recovered in the following decades. Mercifully, the Fourth Crusade in 1204 bypassed the city, and so Thessaloniki was spared the horrors that befell Constantinople. Despite now being the seat of a crusader kingdom, the city is mostly uncorrupted and maintains much of its Byzantine grandeur, providing some inkling of what the Queen of Cities must have been like before her downfall.

Saint Demetrios

St. Demetrios, the patron saint of Thessaloniki, was a martyred Roman soldier. His miracles are credited with saving the city many times against marauding Slavic armies, and he protects his city to this day. If the city is gravely threatened, the saint rises from his shrine in the Hagios Demetrios, where his relics miraculously emit the scent of myrrh, and joins the defenders of the city. Corresponding to this military nature, he is (along with St. George) the patron saint of the Crusades. These two facts may certainly explain why the armies of the Fourth Crusade wisely avoided the city. Nevertheless, the priests of Thessaloniki have struggled to explain the capture of the city by the Sicilians in 1185. Some say that the campaign of William II, nicknamed "the Good," was just and that Demetrios refused to rise up in defense in the name of such a wicked emperor as Andronikos Komnenos, even aiding the attackers. Indeed, in 1185 the defenders were helpless; they inexplicably ran out of ammunition for the catapults and arrows for the archers, and the walls were breached as if by magic. Demetrios will still rise up in defense if the cause is just, however, as he did most recently in 1207. The Bulgarian tsar Kaloyan had besieged the city, but in the first days of October St. Demetrios heard the cries of the citizens, and a shining figure in armor rode out to meet the Bulgarians, slaying the tsar with a spear. While the Bulgarians whisper that Kaloyan was killed by his Cuman cavalry commander in an act of treachery, many on the battlements that day saw the saint save the city again.

The Gorgona

After Alexander the Great had completed his great conquests, he sought to conquer death itself. He claimed for himself the Water of Life, by slaying the dragon that guarded it. He returned home, victorious, with his prize. While he was sleeping, however, his half-sister Thessaloniki drank the water, thinking it to be normal. Furious, Alexander cursed his regretful sister to dwell in the sea forever, and she became a mermaid. She forms the symbol of her eponymous city: a mermaid with two tails, both curving up so that she grasps one in each outstretched hand.

Bad Boars

Men of Macedonia who have led a particularly wicked life are liable to turn into wild boar at the moment of their deaths. They haunt their relatives and acquaintances for forty days after their death, after which time they retreat to the mountains and live in the wild. This post-mortem transformation results from the possession of the corpse by a wilderness demon called a mazzik (see Realms of Power: The Infernal, page 73).

The mermaid, known as the Gorgona, roams the whole northern Aegean, but is most often seen not far from Thessaloniki's great harbor. Whenever a ship is encountered she emerges from the waves, sometimes in a chariot drawn by dolphins, and accosts a sailor, asking him if Alexander still lives. If he answers that he is dead, then she dives under the ship with a terrible sigh, transforming and growing to a fearsome size before raising a great wave with her hand to capsize the ship; if he answers instead that Alexander still lives and rules, then she lets the ship pass in peace, playing calming music on her lyre to still the waves. The Gorgona has a Faerie Might of 40; she is most often encountered during turbulent seas at midnight.

Mount Athos is a wooded promontory of the Chalkidiki Peninsula that rises to the peak of Mount Athos proper, more than 6,000 feet above sea level. Its great cliffs overlook the seas below, and huddled on its wooded and rocky slopes are many monasteries that share this sacred space. Nothing female, either animal or human, is able to set foot upon this holy land, for the Divine has warded it against such intrusion and set it aside as a place reserved for lives of piety and prayer. The whole promontory has a Divine aura of 5, with the monasteries and cells often reaching 7, the altars 8, and certain holy spots on Mount Athos itself 9. Heaven is close here.

The communities of monks here take many forms: solitary eremites living as hermits in caves or tiny cells; lavra of monks who live independently but come together for the service on a Sunday; and koinobion or monasteries of the type prevalent in the West, where many monks dwell together under the Rule of Saint Basil, observing the Orthodox liturgy under the watchful eye of their abbot (see Chapter 4: Culture and Customs, Monastics). From the eighth century the promontory was a place of spiritual retreat, the first of the great monasteries, Xeropotamou or the Great Lavra, opening in 955.

The Holy Mountain has many monastic foundations, some of which are extremely imposing. From an early time the monks have been partially dependent upon the local lay people for food and other necessities hard to cultivate in the rocky soils. But generous support from generations of the Byzantine upper classes who wanted prayers and masses said for their souls, and from ordinary people who were inspired by their personal piety to donate and labor to feed the monks, has allowed the community to grow. Small boats regularly dock, the monks sometimes leave the mountain to take their spiritual insights to other areas, and a constant stream of male pilgrims floods the mountain.

The Latin rulers of Constantinople have respected the autonomy of Mount Athos, which continues exactly as it did before the fall of Constantinople. It is self-governing, with most monasteries participating in the election of the protos, or "first," who represents the community in negotiations with the outside world. Three of the monasteries — the Great Lavra, Vatopedi, and Iviron remain independent and their abbots possess considerable influence in their own right, even beyond the protos. The monasteries reflect a wide range of cultures — Iviron is Georgian, Panteleemon Russian, Zographou Bulgarian, and the Serbs have Hilander. Armenian monks are also common, and three Benedictine monasteries following Latin rites have also been constructed over the centuries.

Olympos, the greatest mountain of Greece, is the legendary home of the 12 Olympian Gods, who dwell and hold court in crystal palaces in a mighty realm above the clouds. This awesome peak, which dominates the east end of the Cambunian mountains, is habitually shrouded in great dark clouds, and wreathed in lightning. Rarely, the clouds may part to allow a brief glimpse of a majestic snow-capped pinnacle, inestimably high above them.

Here and there on the lower slopes, in a

wilderness roamed by wolves and bears, may be found a particular kind of speckled mushroom that grows in the exact spots where Zeus' lightning bolts have met the ground. By eating such a mushroom (which is worth two pawns of Creo vis), which is part of the diet of immortals, a character may receive a –3 bonus to his Aging roll for that year. The secret of these mushrooms is known to only very few persons, since local priests urge villagers to stay clear of Olympos.

As one makes — or attempts — the formidable ascent of the mountain by following the tantalizing glimpses of the peak, climbing into the clouds and through the Faerie regio that blankets the mountain, one eventually arrives at the gateway to the top level of the Faerie regio and the legendary realm above the clouds, which has a Faerie aura of 10 and may be located in the Faerie realm of Elysium (see Realms of Power: Faerie, page 34). A great gate of clouds is guarded by the three Horae (Seasons), goddesses and personifications of Spring, Summer, and Winter. Although it is not easy to enter this realm, certain magi have managed it and have returned to tell the tale. Some of them aimed to unobtrusively study the gods, others desired to pit their wits or their magics against them, and others merely found it a potent place to study the Arts. Merinita magi also sometimes journey to Olympos to engage in Mystery initiations.

Through the gate and above the clouds, no wind or precipitation disturbs the majestic peace of the upper peak. The sunshine reflecting from its snowfields and from the great crystal palace at its summit is so bright as to potentially blind mortal eyes. Here and there may be seen celestial steeds, used to draw the chariots of the gods. From the southern end of the crystal complex, within the palace of Zeus and Hera, the entirety of Greece can be seen, far below. In the great hall of the palace is the huge throne of Zeus, made of black marble inlaid with gold and covered with a purple ramskin. The seven steps leading up to it are the colors of the rainbow. The ivory throne of Hera is covered with white cowskin; three crystal steps are before it. Here, Apollon plays his lyre and the Muses sing to the gods.

The northern end of the crystal complex overlooks comparative wilderness; here are kitchens, workshops, armories, and servants' quarters. Lower down the north face are dwellings for lesser gods, and various stables and menageries of fantastic and sacred beasts. At the center, just to the north of Zeus' palace, is a great open court, flanked by the residences of the other 10 Olympian gods, and at whose northern end may be found a great banquet hall. The ambrosia and nectar of Olympos that is drunk here by the gods, and which is the reputed source of their immortality, is reckoned to be a fabulously potent source of vis.

The Forge of Hephaistos

Hephaistos, the god of smiths and the forge, crafted all the buildings and furnishings of Olympos, and the golden shoes of the gods, with which they could traverse water or air. At the foot of Mount Olympos is one of his most sacred forges, home to several legendary items of his manufacture (see Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults, page 118, for some suggestions). The forge is a cult site sacred to the Mysteries of House Verditius. It has a Faerie aura of 4 and is currently inhabited solely by Theorus the Old of House Verditius, a member of the covenant of Ingasia, which bears responsibility for the site.

The ancient city of Larissa, the seat of an archbishopric since the fifth century, lies in the center of the large and fertile Thessalian plain. It is the principal city of Thessaly, but currently falls under the dominion of the rulers of Epiros. The city was named after the benevolent nymph of a local spring; she is still occasionally seen and venerated as a saint by the locals. The nymph is one of Larissa's ancient symbols; the other is the horse, since the surrounding plains have been famed for their horses and horsemen since antiquity.

Not far from the northwestern edge of the central plain of Thessaly, where the River Salambria emerges from the Pindos Mountains, may be found a spectacular complex of huge sandstone pillars of various shapes and sizes, some more than a thousand feet high. This holy place is named Meteora (loosely translated as "hanging in the heavens"); from these heights one indeed has the feeling of being on a tiny island closer to heaven, especially when mist shrouds the plains below.

Meteora is home to a skete (a small community of hermit monks) named Doupiani,

A Redcap reports sightings of one of the Olympian gods in several villages not far from Olympos. Although this "god" seemed to be using appropriately godlike powers, he also bore a strong resemblance to a magus believed to have succumbed to Final Twilight a couple of decades ago. The Tribunal calls for magi to investigate. Is this being really a god, is it magus who has been possessed by a god, or is it a magus or hedge wizard posing as a god to disguise his mundane meddling?

Magnesian Stones

The coast of Magnesia, the southeastern part of Thessaly, has been a noted source of stones and minerals since ancient times, which are prized by alchemists and magi alike. Of particular interest are the stones known as magnes, which come in two types. The male magnes, some of which may be harvested as Terram vis, are dark-colored, powerful lodestones that attract objects of iron (+7 control iron, +3 divination). If such a lodestone is placed on a scrap of parchment and a certain type of powder is added, mystical symbols are formed. The female magnes, slightly lighter in color and a source of Imaginem vis, may be added to glass to make it perfectly clear (+3 purification, +2 invisibility).

after the pillar where the communal chapel of Theotokos is located; it was founded by the first monk, Varnavas, in the 10th century. Several of the hermits live high up in the pillars, secreted in tiny caves and fissures in the precipitous rock faces, where they have painted primitive frescoes. In some places, crude rope pulleys have been constructed, so as to pull food and supplies (and even men) up to the dwellings. The ropes are replaced only when they break, according to God's will. Should a devout and humble man fall from one of the pillars, he may be rescued by one of the giant Divine eagles that dwell among Meteora, and be borne back up to his cave, or to an even more perilous hole higher up. The mercy of the eagles is such that they often bring scraps of food to starving hermits, although not those engaging in ritual fasting.

With one notable exception, the pillars have Divine auras ranging from 3 to 6. They all have different names — Pillar of Dreams, Pillar of Solitude, and so on — after the various mystical phenomena that one may experience there. The mightiest pillar, Agio Pnevma (Tower of the Holy Ghost), has the strongest aura; its summit is believed to be a gateway to Heaven itself. Its peak has never been reached by any mortal man, at least not by any who ever returned to tell the tale. The one unholy pillar is named Pyrgos Diavolou (Tower of the Devil) and has an Infernal aura of 4. Unlike the others, it is infested with foul vultures who torment and assault any who attempt to climb it.

Meteora is believed to hold several sources of vis, but magi do not commonly visit the site. The last magus who came here attempted an ascent of the Agio Pnevma. Perhaps in punishment for this act of hubris, his levitation magics inexplicably failed and he fell to his death, whereupon his body was eaten by the vultures.

Pelion, a hook-shaped peninsula at the southeastern extremity of Thessaly, is the home of the centaurs, beings with the torso and legs of a horse and the upper body and head of a man. The whole peninsula, a half dozen miles across and twenty miles long, is bereft of human settlement. It consists completely of a labyrinthine and overgrown mountainous forest, densely packed with tangled undergrowth and fallen branches beneath oaks and beeches. A Faerie aura of 3 pervades the whole forest, and navigating it is difficult. Within, the centaurs — faeries who exhibit both the untamed aggression of the stallion and the civilized nature of man in equal measure — are prone to challenging intruders to vigorous and often deadly contests involving fighting, hunting, or racing, which are celebrated with wild feasts and drunken revelries. Pelion is home to several events recorded in Greek legend, such as the marriage of the hero Peleus to the nymph Thetis, whose union produced Akhilles.

The Cave of Chiron

At the highest point of the forest wilderness, to the north of the peninsula, is Mount Pelion proper. Here, in a cave, may be found the foremost and wisest of the centaurs, Chiron. Chiron's knowledge, especially of astrology and medicine, is unsurpassed and his powers of divination are legendary. He was a tutor to most of the Greek heroes, including Herakles, Asklepios, Akhilles, Theseus, Jason, and many more. Accordingly several magi, especially Seekers and magi of House Merinita, have traveled into Pelion in search of Chiron's tutelage. Not all have returned.

Two city-states at the heartland of ancient Greece, Thebes (in Boeotia) and Athens (in Attica), were once bitter rivals. Boeotia, to the north, is separated from Attica, a peninsula to its south, by the forested limestone hills of the Kithaeron Mountains, forming a natural border which was hotly disputed in ancient times. These hills were the backdrop to many battles and legends, and they are now dotted with faerie sites and the ruins of ancient fortifications.

Otto de la Roche of Burgundy established the Duchy of Athens in 1205 and took the title of Duke after 1208, though the Greeks call him Megas Kyr, "great lord," Paying homage at first to Boniface of Montferrat as king of Thessaloniki, Otto supports Demetrios and also paid homage to the Latin emperor.

Some of the hermits of Meteora attempt an ascent of the Tower of the Devil and dwell there as long as possible as a test of their faith — this might also be a suitable ordeal for a character attempting a Mystery initiation. Over the course of forty days and nights, the duration of Christ's time in the desert, he is tormented by the vultures. A character living in the pillar is also presented with three temptations, mirroring those of Christ. Firstly, the vultures bring stones to the starving hermit, which are transformed into tantalizing loaves of fresh bread. If eaten, the stones are an agonizing poison. Secondly,

when the hermit reaches a great height, one of the vultures counsels him to throw himself off the pillar, assuring him that the Divine eagles will rescue the devout. If he succumbs and jumps, however, he falls to his death. Finally, if the hermit reaches the summit after forty days and nights, a beguiling apparition of the Devil shows him the view from the top — a great vision of all that he desires: lands that he wishes to rule, wealth that he craves to possess, and so on. If he accepts this offer, a suitable Infernal Blessing (see Realms of Power: The Infernal, page 85) is granted.

A pious Catholic, Otto has established a monastic house of Cistercians at Daphni (between Athens and Eleusis). He regards Orthodox priests as heretics and has reduced many to destitution by driving them from their positions, and heaps abuse upon them at every opportunity. So shameful is his treatment of the Greek clergy that the pope has excommunicated him for his crimes, and demanded he make recompense. Whether he will obey the pope remains to be seen, for he claims that many Orthodox priests were simply ordained to excuse them from the labor dues and taxes he has levied upon his population, from which clergy are exempt, so he denies the validity of the Orthodox ordination.

Otto's devotion to the Latin Church remains strong, and he has recently converted the Parthenon in Athens to the Cathedral of Our Lady, within the newly fortified Acropolis where he resides. His brother Guy is joint Lord of Thebes with Nicholas St. Omer. (In 1207, after the death of Boniface of Thessaloniki, Nicholas married his widow, Margaret of Hungary. This was her third marriage, as Margaret was previously the widow of Emperor Isaac II Angelos). Athens is heavily committed to the struggle against both Epiros and the Bulgarians.

The ancient city of Thebes, which gives its name to the Tribunal, was founded by a legendary figure known as Kadmus. After consulting the Delphic oracle, Kadmus came to this inland spot at the southern edge of the Boeotian plain and slew the dragon that dwelled there. He sowed the dragon's teeth, as instructed by the goddess Athene, and the Spartoi ("sown men"), fully grown and fully armed magical men, children of Ares, sprang up in their place. Most of the Spartoi fought Kadmus, but five were loyal to him and helped him found his city. The Kadmea — the ancient citadel at the center of the city — is named after him. For a time, Thebes held the upper hand in its struggles against Athens, but the Athenians ultimately prevailed and the race of the Spartoi retreated to a forgotten place in the Kithaeron Mountains, where they may still remain to this day. Thebes' fate was ultimately sealed by Alexander the Great, who razed it as a stern warning to the other cities of Greece to remain loyal.

For more than a thousand years thereaf-

ter, Thebes remained an insignificant town, merely a shadow of its former glory, until the establishment of silk farming in the 10th century. Within two hundred years it then grew to become the preeminent center of silk manufacture in the Byzantine Empire, surpassing even Constantinople, as the famed weavers of Thebes produced fabrics of a legendary quality. Dyes and other necessities were imported from Athens. The silk industry was set back in the middle of the 12th century, when the Norman ruler of Sicily, Roger II, took Thebes and Athens. He moved the industry en masse to Sicily, including all necessary infrastructure and workers. Silk is now also produced in Italy, although to a lesser extent. Thus the secret of sericulture passed into Western Europe.

Thebes and its native silk industry made a complete recovery, however. It is now a sprawling city of 30,000 inhabitants, many of whom are silk growers and weavers, making it easily the second-largest city of Greece. Still, it pales in comparison to the size and splendor of Thessaloniki.

High among forested slopes, in an uninhabited upland region to the west of the Boeotian plain, may be found the legendary Delphic oracle, the most famous seer of the ancient world. The oracle can be found in the Temple of Apollon, at the center of a small complex of temples, ruins, and an amphitheater. The site is situated at an idyllic natural sanctuary on a terraced plateau amid rocky crags, below the sacred Mount Parnassos. The oracle was once consulted by kings, emperors, despots, and philosophers alike in matters of politics, war, and religion, and was famed for the veracity of her answers, although they were often cryptic or bore hidden meaning.

The oracle is now under the stewardship of the Theban Tribunal and the Order of Hermes. A lone Criamon maga resides here and serves as the oracle; she takes the name Pythia — the ceremonial name of the ancient oracle — and, in the fullness of time, chooses her successor (often her filia). After being initiated into the oracle's Mysteries, that successor assumes the name and role without any announcement. Thus, although many magae have served as Pythia, she is regarded as a single enduring entity. Traditionally, magi come here to consult the oracle, especially before important ventures

The characters arrive at Delphi intending to seek out the oracle, but are instead greeted by a young girl who claims to be the apprentice of Pythia. The girl only tells them that Pythia is absent, and repeats the last prophecy of her mistress, which seems to presage both her disappearance and the arrival of her rescuers. It is unclear whether Pythia has been captured or is merely being eccentric; in either case, they will need to solve the riddle of this prophecy in order to bring her back.

like the founding of a covenant or the adoption of a patron, and she is often consulted before important Tribunal decisions. It is unclear how much — if any — of the future she can see. Nevertheless, in the fullness of time her enigmatic predictions are almost always found to contain wisdom. Supplicants to the oracle are only allowed between spring and autumn; they traditionally bring a gift of money or valuables, and present further, more substantial gifts later if the oracle's pronouncements bear fruit.

The Temple of Apollon, which is used by Pythia as a laboratory, is richly decorated, thanks to the many gifts. The adyton ("inaccessible") is the highly secret inner chamber of the temple, where its greatest relic may be found. The omphalos ("navel") is a great hollow egg-shaped stone intricately carved with the pattern of an interweaved net. According to the ancient Greeks, it marks the center of the earth. This is the stone that the titaness Rhea wrapped in swaddling clothes and gave to Kronus (who swallowed all his offspring), pretending it was his son Zeus. A small hole in the omphalos emits heady vapors (Intellego vis), which are imbibed by Pythia to aid her with her predictions. In an inner hearth, an eternal flame burns; it is a potent source of Creo vis — any new flame lit from it burns continuously without fuel. Pythia harvests the vis from these sources on behalf of the Tribunal, after she has taken what she requires for her own needs. Due to the awesome presence of the omphalos and its association with the titans, Magic, rather than Faerie, predominates here; the oracle proper has a Magic aura of 9 and the remainder of the sanctuary has a Magic aura of 7.

At the foot of a monumental pair of cliffs on the lower slopes of Mount Parnassos, where there is a Faerie aura of 4, a pool and its surrounding rocks are dazzlingly bright. Supplicants to the oracle stop here to wash their hair and leave gifts of vis for Pythia in the niches carved into the cliff. After washing, the supplicant's hair seems to have absorbed some of the light; it may be trimmed, yielding Imaginem vis. The former guardian of the spring was the she-serpent Python, a daughter of Gaia slain by Apollon.

The Palace of the Lamia

Several miles to the south of Mount Parnassos, by the coast of the Gulf of Corinth, is a place where a lamia (see Chapter 10: Faerie Landscape, Lamiae and Realms of Power: Faerie, page 68) can be summoned from the sea when a youth plays a flute on the seashore. She makes the young man an offer: a life of ease and pleasure with her. If he refuses, she rips him apart; if he accepts, she drags him into the water and drowns him. A magus might discover that under some circumstances the man is taken to the lamia's underwater palace and given that life of ease, as she teaches him many secret things she has learned. This is a dangerous way to study, but the rewards are reputedly great. Many lamiae are capable of initiating Mystery Virtues, for example.

Athens is so old that its founding is unrecorded by history. Two of the Olympian Gods, Athene and Poseidon, both desired to be its patron, and so offered suitable gifts to win its favor. Poseidon created a spring as a symbol of naval power, by striking the ground with his trident. But the city chose instead the gift of Athene, an olive tree symbolizing prosperity. Thus the city, which in time grew to become the legendary capital of Attica and of the whole of ancient Greece, was named after Athene, and its grateful residents erected a great temple to her atop the Acropolis ("high city"), the naturally defensible hill that is the city's ancient heart and key to its former dominance. To this day, the city is blessed with fertile olive groves.

Athens remained a proud city of scholars and philosophers under Roman patronage, but it fell out of favor as Christianity came to dominate the empire. Under Byzantine rule, Athens was not nearly so significant as it was in the ancient world. Nevertheless it is now still a large and prosperous port city of about 10,000 inhabitants, often frequented by Venetian traders. As well as producing an excess of grain and olives, Athens is known for its fine dyes and soaps, which are needed for the silk industry. In the mountains just

dwindled to a tiny handful.

For more than two thousand years, a certain number of enlightened Greeks have received initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries at the sacred site named Eleusis, 14 miles northwest of Athens. Here Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and fertility, was reunited with her daughter Kore (Persephone), Queen of the Underworld, and reconciled to her fate. Keleus, an ancient king of Eleusis, was among the first to receive the ancient Mysteries here. Initiates lose their fear of death, coming to view it as merely a gateway to the afterlife, and are assured of the immortality of their spirit. This mystical wisdom enables them to live out the remainder of their mortal lives with a greater clarity and purpose. In classical times, the cult was the foremost among the Greek Mysteries, written about by Homer and Aristotle and sought out by flocks of pilgrims, kings, and scholars as well as low-born folk and slaves, and both men and women alike. Over the last several centuries, the cult has adopted some Christian trappings and beliefs — pious initiates become confident of their place in Heaven instead of the pagan afterlife — but orthodox Church opinion holds belief in the Eleusinian Mysteries to be, at best, heresy. As such, the cult has become much more

secretive and the number of initiates has

Prospective initiates to the cult require a sponsor. Barbarians (non-Greeks), those with blood guilt (murderers), and immoral women (prostitutes) are forbidden membership. The initiates gather at the agora in Athens. A band is placed on their right wrist and ankle to protect against the evil eye, and the group proceeds along the Sacred Way, through the Forest of Daphni, to Eleusis. This is a lengthy procession, with much singing and dancing and many ritual stops, one of which is at the Daphni monastery. Here, monks sympathetic to the cult have Christianized a sanctuary to Apollon; some regard them as mystics, but most see them as heretics. The monastery was sacked in 1205 and given over to the Cistercian Order, which has presented the cult with difficulties in recent years.

Arriving at Eleusis at nightfall, the kykeon — the sacred barley water of Demeter — is drunk, and the participants gather outside the great 42-columned telesterion. Next, the goddess Hekate, the secretive companion of Kore and the exalted guide of initiates, seemingly appears as a crone holding a dagger, a golden key, and a rope in her three hands. These symbolize ritual power, arcane mystery, and the umbilical cord of rebirth, respectively. Some, the epoptai, are given a secret password by Hekate and are allowed to proceed to the final stage of the rite, where they receive the awesome and highly secret revelations central to the cult. Others, the mystai, are told that they have to wait another year. Those who are chosen proceed inside and are sworn to secrecy by the placing of the golden key against their lips. Breaking this vow is punishable by death. The mystical revelations, which leave the recipient both awe-struck and enlightened, culminate in the opening of boxes and baskets to reveal sacred relics. Afterwards a celebratory festival, including dancing, feasting, and the ritual sacrifice of bulls, lasting all night is held in the Rharian Field, the place where grain first grew and which is a potent source of Herbam vis. Eleusis has a Magic aura of 4, rising to 6 inside the temple.

There are two Eleusinian Mysteries. Initiation into the Lesser Mystery occurs once a year in March, and grants the Virtue Self-Confident (Confidence score increases by 1 and 2 Confidence points are gained), as the initiate loses her fear of death. The Greater Mystery is initiated once every five years, at the end of August. It may grant the Death Prophecy Virtue, as the initiate is given mystical insights into the nature and timing of her death.

outside the city are the famed marble quarries of Penteli. The Acropolis at the center of the city and its new Latin cathedral are the seat of the Duchy of Athens.

Along the road leading to Piraeus — the harbor of Athens — a single column was erected several generations ago by a group of forty women. They bought a cart, some calves to pull it, and a silver vessel upon which they inscribed the names of every disease to which the population was liable. They then buried the vessel, cart, and calves in the ground, and placed the column on top, dedicating it to St. Haralambos, protector against plagues. Since this time, the city has not suffered any outbreaks of disease.

The Tumulus of Marathon

A small plain in the east of Attica, within sight of the Aegean Sea, is the site of the Battle of Marathon, a decisive Greek victory against the invading Persians in the fifth century BC. Here a large conical tumulus covered with grass and with a Magic aura of 3 is the burial mound of the 192 Athenians who died in the battle. On an ancient stone before the tumulus are recorded the words of the poet Simonides: The Athenians, as defenders of the Hellenes, in Marathon destroyed the might of the golden-dressed Medes.

Every year, on the anniversary of the battle in September, the ghost of the herald Pheidippides appears at the tumulus and repeats his famous athletic feat, running the 26 miles to Athens. He arrives, exhausted, at the foot of the Acropolis, shading his eyes to peer up the hill. If he perceives that Athens is ruled by the Greeks, he proclaims victory with the cry, "We were victorious!", before expiring on the spot in the manner of his original death. He leaves behind only his sandals, each of which contains 3 pawns of Creo vis. If, on the other hand, Pheidippides sees that Athens is in the hands of barbarians (non-Greeks), then he turns away with a grimace, saying nothing before fading away (leaving nothing behind). In the latter case, the ghosts of the 192 Athenian soldiers awaken at the tumulus the next nightfall. With a grim determination, they proceed to battle their way across Attica, taking on any who stand in their way. Unless they are stopped, they arrive at Athens after several days, and mount a furious assault on the Acropolis in an attempt to retake the city. This presents a significant problem for the current Duke of Athens, Otto de la Roche, since the superstitious local Greeks are reluctant to help him defend his city against their own countrymen. He is instead forced to rely on an army of crusaders and mercenaries several hundred strong to repel the formidable ghostly soldiers. Divine help will not avail him either, since he is currently excommunicated. It has been discovered that the ghostly soldiers, when defeated, leave behind various weapons and outfittings that contain Perdo vis. However, the Tribunal has so far refused to gather this vis, not wanting to benefit from a Greek defeat, even a symbolic one. This vis disappears after a short while, but it is not known who — or what — is harvesting it.

Euboea, a narrow seahorse-shaped strip of land in the western Aegean Sea nearly one hundred miles long from northwest to southeast, is technically an island (the second largest of the Theban Tribunal, after Candia), being joined to the mainland only by a bridge. The island has relatively little water, limiting the potential for agriculture, but it is blessed with rich marble quarries. The whole

eastern coast facing the Aegean is rocky and destitute of harbors, and is feared and avoided by sailors on account of its frequent storms and treacherous currents. A large part of the Persian fleet was wrecked here before the ancient Battle of Salamis.

In 1157, William the Bad, the Norman ruler of Sicily, arrived with an army 10,000 strong on 164 ships, mercilessly sacking every coastal town. Formerly modestly prosperous, Euboea never recovered and is now sparsely populated. Shortly after the Fourth Crusade, the island fell into the hands of three barons from Verona, who dubbed themselves the Triarchy. They established a realm of baronies known as the Lordship of Negroponte (the Venetian name for the bridge, and by extension the city of Chalkis and the whole island). The central barony is based at Chalkis, the northern barony at the town of Oreoi, and the southern barony at the town of Karystos. One of the three, Ravano della Carceri, later assumed control of the whole island and accepted Venetian overlordship in an act of rebellion against his homeland. Since his death in 1216, Venetian bailiffs have split each of the three baronies into two, dividing the six resulting territories among Ravano's relatives and descendants.

Chalkis, the small city that is Euboea's principal settlement, takes its name from the copper and bronze workers who first lived there. It also lends its name to the peninsula of Chalkidiki in Macedonia, so named on account of the colonists from Chalkis who settled there in ancient times. A sturdy and venerable fortress dominates the town; it is of strategic significance, since Chalkis has often been used as an ideal base for an invasion of the mainland.

The Euripus Strait

Chalkis is located at the point where the distance to the mainland, Boeotia, is at its shortest, halfway down the Euboic Sea. The Euripus Strait is little more than a hundred feet across, and can be crossed by a wooden drawbridge. The fierce tidal currents of the strait are unpredictable, changing direction many times a day, often suddenly. Aristotle attempted to explain this phenomenon logically, but he was forced to admit defeat, throwing himself into the waters in despair and exasperation. The strait is home to the genius loci of the Euboic Sea, which has a great fear that the strait will be filled in, splitting its sea into two. Thus it maintains the violent tides to dissuade mortals from any such impertinent acts. Decades ago, the folk of Chalkis regularly kept the bridge raised and did not sail ships through the strait in order to appease the spirit, but the new Latin rulers of the island are not nearly so superstitious.

Byzantine philosophers, poring over ancient copies of the works of Homer, Ovid, and Apollodorus alongside the Old Testament, have concluded that Herakles is the Greek name for none other than the biblical figure Samson, whose legendary strength only failed when his hair was cut by Delilah. The 12 Labors of Herakles were obstacles presented to him by the Devil, in order to test his faith and strength. Sites associated with the virtue of Herakles are thus typically Divine, and those associated with his opponents and Labors mostly Infernal.

The mountainous region known as Euboea was the honored site of the wedding of Zeus and Hera. Unfortunately, their marriage was so troubled that this honor turned into a curse. In a rage, Hera destroyed the wedding site in a terrible earthquake, which was so violent that it separated Euboea from the mainland and broke the mountain chain down Euboea's length into three separate clumps. These three areas are now home to warring earth spirits and several sources of Perdo vis. Even today, earthquakes are frequent on the island.

Aetos

The villages of Kastania on the east side of the peak of Aetos, not far from Karystos, and Neohori on the west side each have a koukouvaoun (see Chapter 10: Faerie Landscape, Stoicheiones). Kastania's spirit takes the form of a cow, and Neohori's the form of a

The Baths of Herakles

In the of north of Euboea near the coast, on the slopes of Mount Gaetsades, which is more than 4,000 feet high, is a hot spring. Sulfurous waters cascade over the yellowed rocks directly into the sea. This is one of the places where the hero Herakles came to rest, and healing waters sprang up here in order to refresh him. The waters of the spring, which has a Divine aura of 4, are known to cure gout and rheumatism. Medicinal plants grow up among the surrounding slopes.

The southernmost part of Greece is a peninsula, joined to Attica only by a narrow isthmus. Morea is a fertile land known for its silk production. It is so named because of the large number of moreai, mulberry trees used in sericulture, whose leaves are food for the silkworm. It is also sometimes known as Peloponnesus or the Peloponnese, its name from ancient Greece.

Geoffrey de Villehardouin arrived in Greece accidentally, shipwrecked on his way to Syria on crusade. His ship was blown off course and managed to make landfall in the port of Modon, where the local Greek warlord hired him and his contingent of fellow knights as mercenaries. They participated in the conquest of a large area of Western Morea, but after the death of the man who hired them, his successor distrusted the mercenaries and they were forced to flee north. They found themselves at Boniface's camp, and here Geoffrey was reunited with an old friend, William de Champlitte, who was serving in Boniface's army. The two men, realizing that Morea was in a state of near-anarchy, with local tyrants and warlords fighting to gain territories following the collapse of Byzantine authority in the region, set out to carve out their own realm, which became the Principality of Achaea.

The principality was created by William de Champlitte in 1204 following the great Battle of the Olive Grove (Koundouros), where his small Latin force decisively defeated an army 10 times larger from Epiros, thereby gaining control of Morea. The principality consists of 12 small baronies in the Peloponnese. William died in 1209 while traveling back to France, leaving Geoffrey de Villehardouin as regent. By the terms of William's will he would inherit the principality if the designated heir, William's nephew Robert, did not arrive from France within a year and a day. Geoffrey schemed with the Venetians to ensure that Robert was delayed en route, hence becoming the new ruler of the Principality.

In 1208, Leo Sgouros, the leader of the local resistance, was trapped with a small group of Greeks in the fortress of Acrocorinth (see later). When he realized that his position was untenable, he mounted his horse, donned his armor, and urged his mount to a suicidal leap off the battlements and down the precipitous cliff. Following Leo's death, resistance faltered and the whole of Morea was captured by 1211. In thanks to God, Geoffrey granted the Cistercian Order lands at Zaraka in Arcadia, where an impressive monastery in the Gothic style is currently being built.

In 1218 Geoffrey died and was succeeded by his son, Geoffrey II. Geoffrey II is married to Agnes de Courtenay, daughter of former Latin empress Yolanda and the ill-fated emperor Peter. He enjoys a good relationship with the Latin Empire and with his Venetian neighbors, who are heavily involved in the trade that is making the fertile lands of the principality rich. Generous to Greeks and Latins alike, he is popular and enjoys much support from his subjects. Unlike the current Duke of Athens, Geoffrey II has a good relationship with the Orthodox clergy and has in fact attempted to restrict Latin gains in the Church, levying taxes on Latin clerical lands that have led to papal displeasure. In contrast, the Orthodox clergy are exempted from taxation and military service.

Corinth is named after its legendary founder, Korinthos, a descendant of the sun god Helios. It is located at a strategic spot by the narrow isthmus in the northeast of Morea, benefiting from ports on both the Saronic and Corinthian gulfs. In ancient times it was home to a great temple of Aphrodite, where thousands of prostitutes were employed. As with Thessaloniki, St. Paul the Apostle wrote two epistles to the early Christian community of Corinth; these form two books from the New Testament named Corinthians.

Corinth has suffered repeated disasters under the last thousand years of Byzantine rule. In the fourth century, it was first ruined

As well as Lake Stymphalia, where Herakles completed his sixth Labor — the eradication of the Stymphalian Birds — Morea is home to several other of his 12 Labors.

The town of Nemea, between Lake Stymphalia and Corinth, was where Herakles killed the Nemean Lion, his first Labor. Lake Lerna, a smaller lake in the southeast of Morea, bore witness to Herakles' second Labor, the slaying of the Lernaean Hydra. In the north of Morea is Mount Erymanthos, where, in his fourth Labor, Herakles captured the Erymanthian Boar. In the west is Elis, where Herakles' fifth Labor was to clean the Augean stables in a single day.

Emulating one of the Labors of Herakles is a popular choice of Gauntlet for apprentices of House Flambeau in the Theban Tribunal.

by an earthquake, and then, two decades later, the Goths arrived and sold its citizens into slavery. Further earthquakes in the sixth and ninth centuries destroyed it again. Finally, in the middle of the 11th century, the entire peninsula was ravaged by Roger II of Sicily, on his way to conquer Athens and Thebes. Despite this violent history, Corinth today remains a bustling port city of 10,000 inhabitants, making it the largest and most important settlement of Morea. A sprawling ancient fortress known as Acrocorinth is located 1,500 feet up in the mountains a short distance behind the city. It remains in use and commands the Isthmus of Corinth.

The Isthmus of Corinth

The rocky isthmus connecting Attica to Morea is, at its narrowest, a mere four miles across. Just to the north of the narrowest point is the Examilion, a great defensive stone wall six miles long erected under Byzantine rule in the sixth century. As well as a strategic land bridge, the isthmus is also an important sea connection — in ancient times triremes used to be hauled by slaves over a paved stone track named the Diolkos. Several Roman emperors had grand ambitions to cut a canal across the isthmus. Some even began work on it, such as the deranged emperor Nero, whose plan was brutally simple — send six thousand slaves with spades. His plan died with him. Many centuries later, the appropriately named Severus of House Guernicus resurrected the idea of a canal. He even began to make significant progress by the use of ritual Perdo Terram magics, until he was Marched. His great cut in the isthmus remains, however, as does the ruins of the Diolkos, which is no longer used. Instead, goods are portaged through the two ports of Corinth.

Angistri

The small island of Angistri, about twenty miles southeast of the Isthmus of Corinth in the Saronic Gulf, is home to a giant hen as big as a cow, which raids crops with its massive brood of chicks and ruins fields with its over-sized droppings. A local witch, exiled from the main village, exacted her revenge by sowing magical grain, which a hen ate before growing to a monstrous size and blighting the island.

Lake Stymphalia

Morea's largest lake is located twenty miles west of Corinth, and is surrounded and hidden by a dense ring of dark forest. Here, Herakles undertook his sixth Labor, the elimination of the Stymphalian Birds. Some time much later the birds returned, and they have plagued the surrounding fields and villages ever since. Their appearance in an area is a terrible omen, often presaging disaster. The fearsome black avians are large enough to carry off a small man, and certainly vicious enough to attack, kill, and eat a fully grown one. Their wings have feathers of brass, with spiked tips that can be launched at their foes, and their horrid metallic screeching sets teeth on edge. Herakles was able to scare them into flight by sounding giant clappers of bronze, which were forged by Hephaistos, and then shooting at them with arrows. The lake has an Infernal aura of 4 and the stench of the poisonous black waters, befouled by the birds, is dreadful.

Arcadia

Arcadia is both the name of the mountainous center of Morea, a sparsely populated forest wilderness, and of a Faerie Realm (see Realms of Power: Faerie, page 32). This is not coincidence, since the two places are strongly linked, although it is not clear if the former is named after the latter, or viceversa. The higher that one ascends into the wilderness of Arcadia in Morea, the closer one approaches to Arcadia, which is the Faerie Realm of new stories and adventures. Indeed, it is one of the easiest places from which to enter this Realm, since there are thresholds and guardians of various types all over. Some are at the tops of peaks, others are hidden in groves and caves, and others might be encountered anywhere. For this reason, central Morea is especially beloved of Merinita magi, who travel here from all over the Theban Tribunal, and from further afield. It is not altogether uncommon to find a confused traveler or magus wandering into Morea from the Arcadian wilderness, not knowing where he is.

Vizie

Amid the southern foothills of Arcadia, not too far from the ancient town of Sparta, is the village of Vizie. This village is occupied by dog-headed men called cynocephali. They grow crops and raise sheep, but their neighbors steal their grain and goats so that the cynocephali are forced go to war to get what they need to survive. The peasants of nearby villages claim that the inhabitants of Vizie are monsters who eat people, and so an accord between human and cynocephalos seems unlikely. Were the cynocephali to accept baptism and pray to St. Christopher (a saint born with the head of a dog), however, they would lose their canine aspect.

Zakynthos — an island in the Ionian Sea to the west of Morea that is nominally under the dominion of Venice — is one of the most superstitious and peculiar islands in the whole of Greece. It is twenty miles long from end to end, and faeries and faerie-blooded folk abound here, as do Gifted children. Magi of the Ionian phyle regularly come here in search of them. Indeed, it is quite rare to find a native of Zakynthos who does not bear some measure of faerie blood in her veins or who does not have at least some minor supernatural talent.

There are three main types of faeries to be found on Zakynthos (see also Chapter 10: Faerie Landscape). The nereids, while present in many places in Greece, are especially abundant here. A few villages of men have even married nereids en masse, and some such dwellings have disappeared entirely for many years. Unlike elsewhere, the children of nereids here tend to be fair, and nereid blood is often the cause of families famed for their beauty.

The mortal children of the drakoi, on the other hand, tend to be ugly, stupid, huge, strong, or all of the above. The drakoi of Zakynthos have a single eye, burning with fire, and are often endowed with a supernatual sight. Sometimes entire drakos families may be encountered, including mothers, fathers, and children alike. A constant source of grief — or amusement — is the stubborn effort of a drakos father to find a suitable suitor for his ugly and charmless daughter.

New houses are seldom built on Zakynthos, since anyone who passes by the foundations of a house being laid is in danger of leaving his shadow behind, which turns into a pergalio. The pergalioi are wandering faerie children with black skin and blue eyes. They do not usually cause harm and can be gotten rid of (eventually) by accepting the help that they offer. However they are prone to jealously and vindictiveness if their help is refused.

The Queen of the Nereids

The highest peak at the center of Zakynthos, which has a Faerie aura of 6, is an abode of the nereids and home to their queen. She goes by various names, including the Great Lady and the Mistress of Earth and Sea. She is the largest, wisest, and strongest of the nereids, and may often be seen dancing with her subjects in the streams and pools of her mountain home, or before her simple palace. Like all the nereids she is beautiful, and she wears a white gown with a golden belt. Men whom she hits with her belt are struck dumb, weak, or witless. Children are often taken away to dwell with the queen for many years, although they are not mistreated. Although mysterious, the Great Lady is nobleminded and it is possible to bargain with her for fair treatment or justice.

Medusa, the fearsome gorgon with snakes for hair, who had the power to turn her victims to stone with a glance, was slain by the hero Perseus. The blood from Medusa's right vein was gifted to Asklepios by Athene. It has the power to heal life, whereas that from her left vein was a deadly poison. This blood is held in a basin-like recess atop an ornate stone stele standing near the statue of Asklepios in the Hall of Repose. It is a potent renewable source of extraordinary Corpus vis (see Realms of Power:Magic, page 119), yielding 16 pawns per year. If copiously drunk, the imbiber's Incapacitating Wounds are immediately reduced

to Heavy and all later Recovery rolls for all current wounds succeed automatically. Any diseases or ailments are cured. This is almost never allowed, since it requires consumption of an entire year's supply of the blood. According to legend, the blood even has the power to bring the dead back to life, although magi claim that this has not been performed for more than a century. If a smaller dose of the blood (4 pawns) is used in the crafting of a Longevity Ritual, +12 is gained to the Lab Total. If drunk, such a dose immediately effects a Chirurgeon's Healing Touch on the imbiber.

Epidauros, a healing sanctuary dedicated to the god Asklepios in ancient times, is a small but venerable covenant renowned for its service to the Tribunal. It is dedicated to healing the sick

and ensuring the longevity of magi; many of the current magi of the Tribunal enjoy the benefits of a Longevity Ritual crafted by one of its specialist magi.

The most famous asklepieion — a temple of healing dedicated to Asklepios — Epidauros has a history going back to the fourth century BC. Believed to be where Asklepios himself was born, a cult of pharmakeutria ("physician magi") erected the sanctuary and attended to the multitudes of worshipers and pilgrims who came in search of a cure for their ailments. At the end of the fourth century AD, the site was sacked by marauding Goths and subsequently abandoned. Pre-Hermetic wizards of the Theban League resurrected the sanctuary before the founding of the Order of Hermes, and it has had a continuous presence of magi ever since. The site was briefly usurped by Tremere magi in the ninth century, until they were forced out during the Sundering. Since then, Epidauros has had a long and honorable, albeit uneventful, history of service to the Tribunal.

Epidauros is located on a peaceful hillside not far from the shore on the northeastern coast of Morea. The sanctuary proper which has a Magic aura of 5 and is where the magi have erected their sancta — consists of a small jumble of ancient Greek buildings in variable states of repair. The central structure, the Hall of Repose or Enkoimeteria, is a large communal hall resembling a hospital. The most important or seriously ill patients are brought here. Hermetically speaking, the hall is a laboratory, although it doesn't appear as such to the untrained eye, being

Geoffrey II, the ruler of the Principality of Achaea, in whose lands the covenant is located, falls seriously ill, and his wife Agnes comes to Epidauros to desperately beseech the magi for a cure. If they refuse him aid and he does not survive, then they will both make an enemy of Agnes and be responsible for the resulting chaos as rivals struggles for the succession. If they do heal him, then one of Geoffrey's rivals will accuse him of soliciting the aid of pagan sorcerers. It seems that the magi hold the fate of the realm in their hands, a responsibility that they do not desire but cannot avoid. Either way, Epidauros could legitimately be accused of interfering in the affairs of mundanes. Once the word gets out, the matter might come before Tribunal, or the player characters could be asked to investigate.

highly specialized in longevity and healing. It is shared by the magi of the covenant. It may be used whenever a Tribunal-funded Longevity Ritual is created; the recipient is required to sleep in the hall.

Apart from the sancta of the magi, the remaining buildings of the sanctuary are empty and decaying. One of the outermost is home to a lepers' colony. Set into the hillside nearby is a great theater, disused since Roman times; its acoustics are so perfect that even the tiniest sound on the stage can be heard clearly even from the furthest row. Imaginem vis can be harvested here. Below the sanctuary is a small town, where the covenfolk live among the ordinary inhabitants. Having a church, the town has a Divine aura, but it is not strong enough to disturb the sanctuary.

Epidauros' Patron: Asklepios

The principal Greek god of medicine and healing, Asklepios is a Magic spirit associated with Epidauros. He is a willing patron of the covenant, since the magi are respectful of his sanctuary and fulfill its proper purpose. He has no corporeal manifestation and does not communicate directly, but his presence is felt most strongly at one end of the Hall of Repose, where his statue stands. Those who sleep in the Hall often receive visions from the spirit, especially those who are ill, who may receive guidance on how to seek out a cure for their ailments. Sleepers here also gain +12 to their next Wound Recovery roll and a +6 bonus to the Lab Total if a Longevity Rituals is crafted for them here.

The most noteworthy tradition of Epidauros is its selfless devotion to healing the magi of the Tribunal and providing them with Longevity Rituals, and they are rightly famed for their skill in this. Most of the Tribunal-funded Longevity Rituals are made by magi of this covenant. Many other magi, some even from other Tribunals, come here in search of expert magi to help them stem the tide of years. The great potency of the Longevity Rituals produced here is not just because of the skill of its magi, but is also due to the usage of the Blood of Medusa (see insert), as well as the blessings of Asklepios. The site also has some measure of renown in mortal circles, although much less than the heights of fame it enjoyed in ancient times. Locals know to come here if they are ill, and they will usually be treated. Due to the covenant's extreme focus, its library is highly specialized, containing an unrivaled collection of texts on Medicine and outstanding tomes on Creo and Corpus.

Epidauros has only three or four magi, all of them experts in Corpus, longevity, or healing. Given the level of service expected from members of the covenant — each spends one season per year working as a physician and healer at the sanctuary, and typically spends another season in the crafting of a Longevity Ritual — it tends to only attract selfless magi who are not obsessed with their own study.

Xenias the Leper of House Tytalus

Age: 165 (Apparent Age: 107) Personality Traits: Dutiful +3, Calm +3, Driven +2

Xenias, the nominal leader of the covenant by simple virtue of being the eldest, is

Erebos is an old but relatively obscure covenant consisting entirely of magi from House Ex Miscellanea, dedicated to the preservation of traditions

of magic that are native to the Theban Tribunal. Most of its magi, although they live in the same general area, have little to do with one another, or with the Tribunal at large.

consists of the individual sancta of its members, which are dotted along the valley over the course of several miles. There is no pattern or plan to these dwellings — most of the magi have taken advantage of the numerous hillside and cliffside caves, although some have erected other structures such as cottages or treehouses. Most of the valley has a Magic aura of 2, but other auras are present in a few places. Magi of the covenant have discovered a nearby bat-infested cave complex that is a sanctuary formerly claimed by a chthonic cult of Hecate (see Ancient Magic, page 52). The magi harvest Perdo vis from the cave's bats, but have not yet entered on account of the traps laid by the cultists.

cannot cure leprosy.

Age: 78 (Apparent Age: 52) Personality Traits: Careworn +3, Earthy +2, Venomous +1

a magus aegrotus (a leper magus; see Houses of Hermes: Societates, page 95). Like all the leper Tytalus magi, he has a great affinity for healing and longevity, and is probably the Tribunal's foremost expert in such matters. He appears to be a disheveled old man dressed in slightly tattered leper's robes. The linen veil drawn across his face and his elbow-length gloves disguise just how ancient and withered he really is, and a constantly clanking bell tied to his robes warns people of his status as a leper. Although Twilight-ridden, Xenias is approachable enough, not that many magi do — the prejudices against lepers are not restricted only to mundanes, especially since magic

Galla hails from the herbalist Pharmacopoiean tradition (see Houses of Hermes: Societates, page 123) — as a Root-Cutter, she is able to reduce the vis cost of healing rituals, which is of great benefit to her covenant. A lame woman with silver hair and wearing a simple gray shawl, she walks awkwardly with the aid of her talisman staff. Her snake familiar sniffs out herbs in the nearby hills for her. Galla tends to be the maga at Epidauros who deals with visitors.

The servants and few soldiers of Epidauros are an odd variety of men and women who were healed or saved by the magi, and who have pledged a lifetime of loyalty and service in return. Many of them came to Epidauros as their last hope, and many now have nowhere else to go — some are lepers, some are outcasts, and some are rehabilitated criminals. Most bear some physical disability, either as a result of punishment or injury: several have had their tongues cut out; others are missing limbs, or are blinded or castrated.

In the second half of the ninth century, a few decades after the founding of House Ex Miscellanea and shortly after the Sundering of House Tremere, representatives of House Ex Miscellanea came to the Theban Tribunal. Among them was a filius of Pralix, tasked with dealing with the troublesome Witches of Thessaly (see Houses of Hermes: Societates, page 109, and Realms of Power: The Infernal, page 140). A tiny handful of the witches, led by a maga named Cyra, were convinced and agreed to join the Order of Hermes. Cyra was not minded to move, however, and so founded a covenant in the homelands of her tradition, the Cambunian mountains of northern Thessaly. She decided that her covenant should protect and preserve all the native Greek traditions that had been threatened by House Tremere before the Sundering. She named her covenant Erebos, a synonym for Hades also meaning "blackness" or "shadow." The name proved to be apt, since Erebos is among the most secretive of the Tribunal's covenants.

Over the years since, several new recruits to the Order of Hermes, most from native Greek traditions of magic, have gravitated here, reasoning that a covenant explicitly devoted to the preservation of their tradition would be a welcome home. Most found Erebos somewhat less than welcoming, but stayed anyway.

The covenant's buildings, such as they are, may be found in a long, largely deserted valley in the Cambunian mountains on the northern edge of Thessaly. There are no communal structures; instead, the covenant

Erebos' Patron: Cyra

Cyra of House Ex Miscellanea founded the covenant of Erebos, but passed into Final Twilight only a couple of decades thereafter. She did not vanish entirely, however. On occasion she reappears as a cryptic guide and protector of her followers, who have adopted her as their patron spirit. She most often takes the form of her former familiar, a great white owl with bright red eyes, which strongly resembles a kind of protective spirit from northern Greece known as koukouvaouna. Otherwise, she appears as a haggard woman with glowing red eyes, dressed in a black shawl and clutching an obsidian staff enchanted with destructive powers. She curses any who enter the valley with malign intent towards Erebos. Cyra is most likely a Magic spirit, but might conceivably be Infernal, given the dark nature of the magics practiced by the Witches of Thessaly.

Erebos has several distinct traditions, namely the magical traditions of its magi. Those traditions with more than one member at the covenant tend to meet with each other; but otherwise the magi do not generally hold council, nor do they even have a council chamber. The leader of the covenant has always been a Witch of Thessaly descended from Cyra, and arranges all practical matters, such as the distribution and collection of books and vis. Magi of House Ex Miscellanea from different traditions do not tend to mix well, and so Destasia, the current leader, is often called upon to rule on the petty quarrels that erupt between them.

Erebos is not well-regarded in the Theban Tribunal, largely due to its secrecy, the reluctance of some of its magi to volunteer service to the Tribunal, and the somewhat sinister nature of the Witches of Thessaly who lead it. House Tremere, in particular, regards the covenant as little better than a nest of devil-worshipers; as such, Erebos has a strong antipathy with the covenant of Gigas, further to the north. Their local enemies are the Daughters of Erictho, those of the Witches of Thessaly who refused to join the Order, and who remain hidden among the Cambunian mountains.

Considered by number of members, Erebos is actually one of the Tribunal's largest, with nearly a dozen magi all of House Ex Miscellanea. Among the native Greek traditions with a presence here are the Witches of Thessaly, the Cult of Orpheus, and the Pharmacopoieans (see Houses of Hermes: Societates). There are also one or more magi from Slavic traditions, who claimed to have been hounded out of the Transylvanian Tribunal.

Destasia of House Ex Miscellanea

Age: 43 (Apparent Age: 37)

Personality Traits: Overbearing +2, Vengeful +2, Moody +1

A descendent of Cyra, Destasia has recently inherited the rulership of Erebos, despite her relatively young age. Her mater Megethia, the former leader, is still at the covenant, but is increasingly absent due to prolonged Twilight episodes. She is familiar with the magic of defixiones, capable of inflicting curses; correspondingly she specializes in Perdo and Corpus. An elegant and athletic black-haired woman, Destasia would be attractive, were it not for the ritual scars that have marred her face, believed to be due to an ordeal for a Mystery initiation.

Erebos has no covenfolk as such. Instead, most of its magi have their own servants, guards, and retainers, though some manage without. The autocrat, who controls the limited finances and supplies of the covenant, is directly loyal to Destasia, giving her considerable power.

House Tremere has a checkered history in the Theban Tribunal. And so, the covenant of Gigas was established to remind the magi of Thebes of the strength of House Tremere immediately to

the north. While Gigas is often politically at odds with the rest of the Tribunal, it is also seen as neutral ground upon which to conclude peace treaties and pacts of good-will and non-aggression, because of its distance from the other covenants.

Gigas was established in 1023, initially as a place for recovery by those magi and favored companions who had been wounded in the Schism War. From the very beginning the Tribunal was suspicious of its agenda, particularly when in 1069 it established a policy of admitting only members of House Tremere.

Gigas is the most northerly of the Theban covenants, at the very north edge of a rich and fertile valley southwest of Sofia. The magi occupy a hunting lodge in a small expanse of forest that has a weak Magic aura. In order to avoid attention in this well-populated area, the lodge itself is kept quite small, and the sancta of the magi mainly are underground.

Gigas is House Tremere's most significant holding in the Theban Tribunal. Its purpose is to report back to Coeris— the Tremere domus magna in Transylvania — all news that could not be obtained through the usual channels.

Several members of Gigas have been outspoken in their condemnation of some of the Tribunal's practices, and feel that the magical tradition of the Order has been debased and usurped by "vulgar paganism." They seek to normalize the Tribunal and bring its practices back in line with the rest of the Order. They pursue minor objectives to fulfill this goal, such as championing Latin over Greek, setting precedents in the hope of adding to the Peripheral Code, and reviewing as many laws as possible when a member is assigned to the Legislative Board (see Chapter 4). They claimed a minor victory recently when the position of logothete ceased to be elected every Tribunal; although this motion was not proposed by a member of the covenant, they successfully campaigned for its passing. The leader of Gigas is reported to have stated that "even the Roman Republic was brought down by a tyrant." If true, this statement betrays Gigas' (and thus House Tremere's) intentions should the gradual method fail.

Gigas' Patron: Čovek

Gigas has never accepted the need for a patron spirit or creature, believing it to smack of idolatry. By way of protest against this tradition, the covenant designates the familiar of their covenant's leader as their official patron, even if it is in name only. Čovek is a silver wolf, one of a lineage that has produced familiars for many prominent members of House Tremere, including all of the leaders of Gigas. It is considered an honor to be chosen by one of these magnificent beasts.

Gigas does not admit members who are not followers of Tremere, and most of the Tremere at Gigas are the Hermetic descendents of its leader Boustaphan. Gigas will also offer support and even temporary membership for any Tremere magus who wishes to join the Theban Tribunal from another Tribunal. Gigas usually has six members, although it occasionally plays host to Tremere from outside the Tribunal and can comfortably accommodate nine members.

Boustaphan of House Tremere

Age: 114 (Apparent Age: 64)

Personality Traits: Level-Headed +2, Wolf +2, Close-Mouthed +1, Jovial –1

The leader of Gigas is Boustaphan, the senior member of House Tremere and one of the few to hold his own sigil. He acts as the House's Tribune in Thebes, and uses the

proxy votes granted him by the younger Tremere to attempt to reform the Theban Tribunal in the manner dictated to him by Coeris. Boustaphan has been careful to remain aloof from the arguments generated by his covenant and House against the traditions of the Tribunal, but he is almost certainly supportive of many, if not all of them.

Boustaphan appears to be a robust man in his sixties, and he dresses in the fashion of a minor noble. He is often seen hunting with a hawk on his wrist, and most locals believe him to be an exile from the fall of Constantinople. He seeks immortality through his line, and has consistently trained apprentices since he was able to Open the Arts. When looking for a new apprentice, he is willing to accept those that no-one else wants at the Apprentice Presentation (see Chapter 4), and give them a purpose and place serving House Tremere.

Monorchis of House Tremere

Age: 58 (Apparent Age: 42) Personality Traits: Stubborn +3, Zealous +3, Mystical +1

The parents of the young man who became Monorchis arranged for him to become a eunuch to increase his chances of a good career as a palace bureaucrat. The boy's rapidly emerging Gift proved to be the savior of his manhood, and he was able to interrupt the surgery before the castration was complete. He was discovered by Boustaphan, who maintained several spies in the imperial palace, and was brought to Gigas for training.

Perhaps due to his narrow escape from a life of parchment and ink, Monorchis has adopted a fervent anti-intellectual approach. He refuses to read, and studies the Hermetic Arts principally from vis. He believes that the Order has placed too much emphasis on the written word and become distracted by tiresome logic and endless philosophy. He feels that magi have lost a vital intuitive connection to their magic, and has made several contacts within House Criamon and, it is rumored, some esoteric Mystery Cults. His magical expertise is in the Form of Ignem, which he sees as a metaphorical quest for the light of the soul.

Allectores of House Tremere

Age: 46 (Apparent Age: 33) Personality Traits: Reasonable +3, Silver-Tongued +3, Calm +1

Allectores is the chief negotiator and ambassador of Gigas, and the most approachable of its members. While his role might seem contrary to the martial nature of his House, the Tremere recognize the need for diplomacy as much as the need for readiness for war, and he is a valued member of the covenant. However, he tends to play up his apparent mis-fit to the military structure of the House to gain sympathy among those with whom he deals. Allectores has reportedly received a faerie blessing that causes everyone he meets to see him in a favorable light.

Inhabited by House Guernicus and House Tytalus in what some call a sinister alliance, the covenant of Hedyosmos deserves its ominous reputation. By all accounts the covenant squats over a portal to

the Underworld, and its members are expert wielders of magic associated with stygian forces — the earth, the dead, and malicious magic. In practice, Hedyosmos has been a strong supporter of the Hermetic polity throughout its existence. While some question their motives, no-one could question their loyalty.

Hedyosmos is one of the oldest covenants in the Tribunal. Wizards dwelled on the site for at least a century before the Order was founded, and possibly longer. In antiquity, the site was the site of a temple of Hades, the god of the Underworld. Indeed, it was one of the few cultic centers of this god, since the Eleans were the only men who were known to worship Hades.

Three members of the original Theban League hailed from Hedyosmos, and Guernicus himself taught the youngest of them Hermetic magic. Already allied to the veneration of chthonic spirits, its membership welcomed Guernicus' restored Terrae Cult (see Houses of Hermes: True Lineages, pages 36 & 68, and the insert), and the covenant became one of its most important seats.

It is commonly believed that magi of Hedyosmos were pivotal in the Sundering of Tremere in 848 (see Houses of Hermes: True Lineages, page 113). It is certain that the alliance of Guernici and Tytalan theurgists that constituted the covenant were both motivated and appropriately skilled to conduct a campaign that destroyed Tremere's plans to dominate the Order. Although officially House Tremere has no interest in the details of the Sundering, individual members of the house would be very interested to read Hedyosmos' records for that period. But Tremere magi are not welcome at Hedyosmos.

The covenant weathered the Corruption of House Tytalus and the Schism War with equal nonchalance, and has remained unperturbed through mundane conflicts and Hermetic turmoil alike.

The slopes of Mount Minthe in Elis bear the ruins of a nekyomanteion (a shrine to the dead), beneath which is the covenant of Hedyosmos. The covenant is entirely under-

The Founder Guernicus was the last member of a cult dedicated to the mysteries of the earth. In the Founder's last years, he reconstituted the cult among some of his apprentices, and revealed to them some of its secrets. Over time, the cult has adopted members from other houses, although it is always headed by a member of House Guernicus. In Greece, the threskeia geine ("cult of the earth," called the cultus terrae or Terrae Cult elsewhere) has suborned the traditional functions of Hades, the principle Underworld god, without offering him any veneration. In fact, as the epicenter of Kampe's Lovers (a faction seeking to undermine the gods), it specifically seeks to weaken the power of Hades over the prison of the titans, and restore them to prominence, starting a golden age of magic. This goal is described in detail in Chapter 9, although it should be noted that these are not the goals of the Terrae Cult as a whole, just those in the Theban Tribunal.

The threskeia geine of Hedyosmos has Initiation Scripts for the following Virtues: Divination and Augury using the Geomancy Method (The Mysteries Revised Edition, Chapter 7), Summoning (see below), Dowsing, Puissant Terram, Silent Magic, and Spirit Familiar (principally earth spirits; The Mysteries Revised Edition, page 66).

Ordeal Flaws typically bestowed by these Scripts include: Restriction: feet much be touching bare earth; Afflicted Tongue (through mutilation), Deficient Auram, No Sense of Direction.

The Terrae Cult teaches a variant of the Summoning Virtue described in Realms of Power: The Infernal (pages 114–115). Rather than summoning any non-corporeal entity, it can instead summon any creature with a Magic Might that is aligned to the Form of Terram, including certain spirits, but also some magical animals and elementals (see Realms of Power: Magic, page 135). When summoning elementals, the character must use the scouring mechanic to create the elemental de novo. This version of the Summoning Virtue is not tainted by the Infernal.

ground, in a series of labyrinthine caves connected by twisting passages. Each cavern has several entrances, and it is easy to get lost in the lightless depths. Each magus has a cavern (or several caves) set aside as a sanctum; such caves are always blocked with a door. To the touch of anyone with Magic Resistance, a sanctum mark is briefly revealed in a silver glow to prevent accidental violation of sanctum law.

Beneath the occupied levels of the covenant is a labyrinth of passages and caverns. The Magic aura of this labyrinth is aligned with Terram (see Realms of Power: Magic, page 16), and as one progresses further into the maze of passages, the strength of the aura increases. It is widely believed that an entrance into the Magic Realm can be found within the labyrinth, specifically one that leads to the Underworld prison of the titans. The covenant strongly discourages people from entering the labyrinth, although it utilizes several chambers for its cultic practices.

Several of the covenfolk have the Dowsing Virtue. Through its use the covenant has located several seams of gold, silver, and gemstones, leaving them fabulously wealthy. All these mines are operated through intermediates to avoid accusations of meddling with mundanes.

Hedyosmos' Patron: Minthe

According to legend, Minthe was the lover of Hades. When the Underworld god abducted and ravished Persephone, Minthe boasted that Hades would return to her and banish Pesephone from his halls. This angered Persephone's mother, Demeter, who trampled Minthe to dust underfoot. From this dust grew the mint plant, and the mint became Hades' sacred herb.

Minthe, who is a magical Daimon, guards one of the entrances to the Underworld, which is believed to be a way to gain entrance to the Magic Realm. For many centuries the inhabitants of Hedyosmos have venerated Minthe rather than Hades. Since she is set over a gate into Tartaros — where the titans are imprisoned — she is vital in the plans of Hedyosmos to restore the dominance of the Magic Realm over the lands of the Tribunal.

No light or speech is permitted in the common areas of the covenant. Magi and companions may light the caves assigned to them however they wish and can speak freely in them, provided that no light or noise seeps into the corridors or shared chambers. Even the kitchens have no source of light; all food is prepared outside or bought from the nearby village, and warmed using hot rocks in covered baskets. In some areas it is actually impossible to make light or noise due to ageold enchantments. The covenfolk and magi communicate through a unique form of signlanguage in which the speakers press their fingers into the hands of those to whom they are talking. The Hedyosmos Lore Ability is essential to avoid getting lost in the dark.

Hedyosmos is a vocal proponent of the Theban polity. Its members often advise on the judicial and legislative boards (see Chapter 4), and their votes at Tribunal are invariably biased towards the solution that does the least harm. It is well known that those in need of a skilled debater for a decree at Tribunal can often secure the services of a magus of Hedyosmos, at the cost of neutralization of one of its member's shards. However, the magi here have been known to turn down requests that they feel

The sinister reputation of this covenant has contributed to a great deal of rumor and speculation regarding its history and practices. Many of these rumors are propagated by followers of Tremere who have especial reason to suspect the covenant.

• During the Sundering, Tremere's senior lieutenants were imprisoned and interrogated at Hedyosmos, and the knowledge gained was used to produce the mighty rituals which broke the house. Some of their ghosts are captives to this day;

• Tremere magi deliver their dead through the Gate of Eurydice at Coeris. Some claim that these remains, or their spirits, emerge in the labyrinth beneath Hedyosmos;
• Hedyosmos' wealth derives from the alchemical transformation of human bones into gold.

Askalaphos has plans for Vrakos and his nascent cult. The faerie intends to reclaim the covenant as a temple to Hades and rid it of the enemies of his lord — the magi. This plan will develop over many years, as presently Vrakos is the only devout follower of the god, and further recruitment is a tricky business in a covenant populated by inquisitive Guernici and scheming Tytali. The biggest impediment to the scheme is the covenant's Aegis of the Hearth, and Askalaphos is considering ways in which he could be invited into the covenant and take part in the ritual.

are detrimental to the polity. Likewise, their magical assistance is also easily obtainable; Aiakia (see later) knows a number of ritual spells including Conjuring the Mystic Tower, and is willing to cast them on behalf of others for simply the cost of the ritual in vis and the neutralization of a shard (one of hers, or those of her sodales).

Hedyosmos has eight magi: four from House Guernicus; three from House Tytalus; and Celaenea of House Bonisagus. All eight magi are members of the threskeia geine. Porphyrion of Tytalus was a member of Hedyosmos until 10 years ago when he left for Rome. After a brief stay there, where it is rumored he found the infamous Jar of Pandora (see Realms of Power: Magic, page 107), he moved on to the Normandy Tribunal. It is suspected that he will make a play for primus of Tytalus if he sees an opportunity to best both of the current primi (see The Lion and the Lily, page 132).

Age: 162 (Apparent Age: 88) Personality Traits: Patient +6, Discreet +3, Stubborn +2

Ausculator "The Listener" is the leader of Hedyosmos, and has held that position since his mater vacated the role five decades ago. Despite his extreme age, his body is still healthy thanks to a remarkable Longevity Ritual. Ausculator has a strong, statuesque profile, snow-white hair, and white eyes with no iris or pupil — he is completely blind, and often paints eyes on his eyelids as is commonly done to marble statues. His skin is cool to the touch, and he prefers to wear a simple tunic with an embroidered hem. Ausculator uses the minimum of bodily gestures and movements, and can freeze into total stillness; those unfamiliar with him could easily mistake him for a statue. He can remain standing in the same position for many hours, even days. The fact he has been doing this more frequently lately suggests to some that Twilight is consuming his life. His familiar is an imago, a spirit of sound (see Realms of Power: Magic, page 105), summoned through the Mystery of the Spirit Familiar.

Ausculator is widely recognized as the Tribunal's foremost expert in the Art of Terram, and is the leader of the Terrae Cult in the Theban Tribunal. His fame as an author is wide-reaching, and authentic copies of his work (signified by the glitter of mica dust impregnated in the parchment) fetch high prices for their exceptional quality. Ausculator's mater has vanished from the Tribunal, and Ausculator says that she will not return. But whether she has died or entered Final Twilight he is not saying. The most common opinion is that she entered the labyrinthine lower passages of the covenant and did not return.

Aiakia of House Guernicus

Age: 61 (Apparent Age: 53)

Personality Traits: Loyal +2, Touchy +2, Friendly –2

Aiakia is the youngest filia of Ausculator, and she is being groomed to take over from her pater when he is finally claimed by Twilight. She is not the most powerful of the cult's members, but has the greatest knowledge of its rituals and therefore is best suited to the role. Aiakia's specialty is caverns and underground passages. She has extensively explored many cave complexes throughout the Tribunal and beyond, and brought back secrets from them that she only partially comprehends. Her other interest is earth elementals, over which she exerts remarkable control.

Age: 70 (Apparent Age: 51)

Personality Traits: Vengeful +3, Champion of Other's Woe +2, Dependable –1

A member of the Tytalan Mystery Cult of the Titanoi (see Houses of Hermes: Societates, page 94), Tisiphon is a Quaesitor with a misguided sense of honor. He takes special interest in Hermetic cases where a magus has appeared to escape the Order's just punishment. He attempts to put right such injustices through vehement oration at Tribunal; by obsessively reviewing the law through multiple petitions to the Legislative Board; and, if all else fails, by declaring Wizard's War on the perpetrator. Tisiphon's spirit familiar is an Aspect of the Erinyes, the tripartite Daimons of revenge. He has little time to devote to the Terrae Cult due to his membership of the Titanoi, and is a member in name only.

Celaenea of House Bonisagus

Age: 48 (Apparent Age: 44) Personality Traits: Proud +3, Idealistic +1, Calm –2

Celaenea is a Seeker in the direct line of Lucian Triamonae, the magus who founded the Seeker movement, and believes that this should earn her the respect of her fellows (it doesn't). She is obsessed with the legends of Hermes, and has set up a covert laboratory on Mount Cyllene, where the god was purported to have been born. She believes that by divining the character of Hermes she can uncover the roots of magic itself (see Chapter 10: Faerie Landscape, The Problem of Hermes insert for discussion of this).

The covenfolk are forced to operate in total darkness for most of the time, and have developed different ways to cope. Most are fluent in the covenant's sign language. Valued servants are given enchantments that allow them to overcome their blindness. All the covenant's grogs, regardless of whether they possess one of these enchantments, are trained to combat opponents who they cannot see, and are sometimes loaned to the Tribunal's polemarch (see Chapter 4) for Wizard's Marches conducted against opponents prone to using invisibility.

Characters born at the covenant often possess the Dowsing Virtue in response to its strongly aligned aura.

Vrakos

Vrakos is the covenant's cook, who is wholly beneath the notice of the magi. This is probably why he has been targeted by Askalaphos, a faerie in service to Hades. It was Askalaphos who revealed that Persephone had eaten pomegranate seeds while in the Underworld, thus dooming her to spend some of the year at her abductor's side. Demeter cursed the tattletale Askalaphos to be forced into the shape of a screech owl, and he remains that way to this day. Vrakos was befriended by the talking owl when abroad from the covenant, and was gradually won over to his cause. The cook has become a priest of Hades by conducting secret rites in the depths of the covenant, and has began to subtly recruit from among the serving folk. Presently, he asks little more than votive offerings of milk, honey, and blood from a black ram, but plans to create a hidden cult to the Underworld god.

Few of the House Jerbiton covenants of the Tribunal remain, but one of the few that does is that of the House of Mercy (Oikos tou Eleous), situated in Thessaloniki. On the fall of Constanti-

nople, the covenant's three male magi chose to leave for Rome rather than face the end of civilization in the Theban Tribunal, but two nuns remained within their convent and have recruited new members to the covenant, all of whom are holy magae (see Realms of Power: The Divine, page 66). The covenant's patron is Saint Demetrios.

Oikos tou Eleous is situated in the city of Thessaloniki. In 1185, five thousand citizens were slain by the invading Sicilian army, and a strong Infernal aura arose over the desecrated holy places and ruined streets.

The covenant was founded by two holy magae in response to that outrage. The sack of the city was marked by atrocities against the religious, and deliberate sacrilege and desecration of holy places. The covenant soon uncovered evidence of a widespread diabolist group in the city, linked to the Paulician heresy. They set about defeating this evil, and attempting to uncover the demonic influence that was corrupting the citizens, as well as actively preaching against and debating the Paulicians who still legally dwell within the walls today, their evil unsuspected by most who assume the nuns are religious bigots. While the Infernal auras have greatly diminished, the struggle for the soul of the city continues.

The covenant did what it could to help with the healing of the physically and spiritually wounded. When the tragedy of the sack befell Constantinople, the example of Oikos tou Eleous showed what could be done to restore a wounded city. Yet even in Thessaloniki some despaired, and three of the magi decided these things were signs of the end times, and set off for Rome belieing they were needed there. Only the sisters remained to continue the struggle in Thessaloniki. They successfully invoked Saint Demetrios in 1207, calling for him to save the city from the Bulgarian Tsar, and believe it was the saint himself who slew the tsar on the fateful October day.

Since 1205 the city has become the capital of the new Kingdom of Thessaloniki, and has come under attack from both the Bulgarians and Epiros. Furthermore, the city is rent by political struggles, mainly focusing on the boy-king Demetrios and his regency, and the rival claim of William of Montferrat. It is likely that within a year the city will be under siege, unless the new Latin emperor intervenes.

In 1207 a pair of twins from Lesbos, who belong to the Ex Miscellanea Seirenes tradition (see Houses of Hermes: Societates, page 137), were attracted to the covenant. They

immediately involved the covenant in royal affairs by their covert support of Queen Margaret of Hungary, whose son (also called Demetrios) was already a great favorite of the nuns.

The covenant is not a single location, but consists of an alliance of maga bound together by a typikon (charter) for the mutual defense and restoration of the spiritual and physical health of Thessaloniki, in a similar manner to a lavra.

Sisters Anna and Theocharista maintain the tiny convent of Koukoubiou, housed in a walled villa with a small orchard and beautiful flower garden within the city walls, with six nuns loyal to them. Their personal chapel with a Divine aura of 4 serves as their laboratory, and their prayers and liturgical chanting act as the focus for their magical tradition. The rest of the villa has an aura of 2, the walled gardens 1.

The twins reside in the royal palace, with just four slaves as personal attendants, and have a room in their apartments that serves as a cramped laboratory. They are actively seeking better facilities, especially given their tendency to argue with each other.

The covenant is dedicated to the protection of King Demetrios and the veneration of the saint of the same name, and the protection and spiritual and physical survival of Thessaloniki. All of the magae are holy magae, and maintain vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience and a demanding schedule of personal devotions. Being holy magae of three traditions, the women have little use for vis, or books and lab texts, and do not hold many common resources at all, making them very different from most Hermetic covenants.

Oikos tou Eleous has four magae, and as a result is often referred to in the Tribunal as the "Ladies of Thessaloniki."

Age: 112 (Apparent Age: 62)

Personality Traits: Pious +6, Devoted to Thessaloniki +3, Brash +1

Mother Anna is the spiritual leader of the convent of Koukoubiou — a tiny religious retreat of the type sometimes created by Byzantine ladies who choose not to join a large convent. Along with her sister Theocharista, she founded this convent in the immediate aftermath of the sack of 1185. She labored hard to rebuild the city and heal the wounds, especially the spiritual injuries, inflicted in that atrocity. She is very much a strong-willed woman with a clear agenda, and she rules her nuns with a rod of iron, having seen first hand the consequences of sin and the influence of the Infernal. Regarding herself as a spiritual warrior, she has no time for stupidity, cowardice, or compromise, and suffers fools badly. Anna can, however, be civil when the occasion calls for it, pretending to be weak and servile, yet mercilessly satirizing her betters all the time with her dry wit, which she inherited from her grandfather, a famous scholar and courtier. She serves only the city, and God, and some say in that order.

Age: 109 (Apparent Age: 63) Personality Traits: Peacemaker +3, Humble +2, Scholarly +2.

Theocharista is the younger sister of Anna, and has always lived in her sister's shadow. Where Anna is brash and bold, Theocharista is kind and self-effacing, but she is not without considerable personal strength. She is a brilliant scholar of Neo-Platonic philosophy, with a great understanding of theology — in particular the writings of the Cappadocian Fathers on the Holy Trinity. Her patience and calm, loving strength hold the covenant together.

Nereida Ex Miscellanea

Age: 31 (Apparent Age: 22)

Personality Traits: Fearless +6, Romantic +3, Vain +2

Nereida is the twin sister of Nonna, and like her is a member of the Seirene tradition. Her music deals with the emotion of cour-

She has used a Longevity Ritual since just after her Gauntlet to preserve her looks, and her vanity earns the disapproval of the other magae who see it as sinful.

Nonna Ex Miscellanea

Age: 31 (Apparent Age: 31) Personality Traits: Courageous +3, Nurturing +2, Assertive +1

Nonna is as different from her twin sister as chalk from cheese, though physically they are almost indistinguishable except for their apparent ages, leading to many confusions at court. She has no romantic interest in men at all. A true and close friend of Queen Margaret of Hungary, who is now living in Athens, she is genuinely fond of King Demetrios but still would have preferred to see Queen Margaret rule Thessaloniki.

Nonna has just returned after several years of service in Constantinople at the court of Empress Yolanda, and her strong commitment to empowering women and thinly disguised contempt for the foibles of men may yet lead to more clashes with her sister and fellow magea. She would actively oppose any male being admitted to the covenant.

The covenant does not have any covenfolk as such, or grogs, instead relying upon the magae themselves and their personal staffs for any services necessary. The convent is run by Anna as mother superior, and her six novices are mainly widows of the recent wars. One, the obstreperous and surly Gemma, has been here since 1185. Gemma is well aware that the sisters are much older than they appear, but puts it down to God's grace — not that she doesn't whine loudly about the injustice of it at every opportunity. Surviving from their personal wealth, the nuns perform their own domestic duties with only one hired helper, John the gardener.