Season

Ars Magica uses the term Season to refer to two game concepts - the developmental stage of a covenant or character, and the period of time.

Developmental Stage

Ars Magica describes the long-term development of a Covenant through the metaphor of seasons.

The Four Seasons

Spring

Spring covenants tend to be full of energy to the point of seeming frentic or even manic. This is because they have to. Spring covenant are fghtng for their very survival, working hard to establish themselves as haven of the safety and surplus that are necessary for serious studes of the Hermetic Arts.

Magi need months of uninterupted studies to improve themselves. To achieve this, the basics (such as food, a place to live and the right to live there) must be secured, as must suitable material for studies.

Spring stories tend to be external - forced upon the covenant from outside. Someone disputes the the covenant's rights to some source of income or demand payment of taxes/tribute/rent for the location of the covenant buildings. Magi from other covenants test the magi with respect to how far they are willing to go to keep their meager resources, be they gold or Vis. Stories about Hermetic politics tend to center around some covenant or other taking advantage of the spring covenant (which must then be fought off politically) or about the spring covenant being offered bargains that they may well live to regret, be it resources they need in return for ther votes on a particular subject, or offers to support them politically against the 'big bully' in return for future favours - or more vis/tractatii than they really feel they can afford.

Summer

The Summer of a covenant's life is by comparison introspectve. The most direct and pressing needs are taken care of. Magi can assume that day today needs aren't going to require they personal exalted attention.

Now is the time for self-discovery and to pursue personal interests. Now is the time to realise that your fellow covenant member is a repulsive manipulative toad of a person, despite his fair exterior, and that while you needed him during spring, perhaps you are less than happy to spend the rest of your life within reach of his coils. Perhaps the difference is simply one of vision - how is this covenant supposed to be lead. This is also the time for magi concerned with power to expand - Arts are still low enough that progress is fast, surplus typically exists to aquire new books or expand Vis in the creation of devices. Typically this is when magi start taking apprentices and binding familiars - suddently the covenant is full of individuals of significant mystical power, yet weaker than the main magi.

Ofcourse not all magi will pursue raw power but the surplus that make such studies possible also allow magi with other interests to pursue their fascinations. Perhaps the Jerbiton magus studies finesse for a few years in order to become a sculptor of the highest order? Perhaps the Trianomite starts visiting every covenant in the tribunal (or in the entire Order!) to find allies and tie the Order together?

Summer is the time for grand projects: The short term shortages of Spring are in the past and the magi are expanding; the sky's the only limit in sight!

Autumn

An Autumn covenant is past its prime and no longer growing, but enjoys the influence and resources it accumulated in Summer. It need not be large, but it is nearly always prominent.

Winter

A Winter covenant has begun the long slide toward decadence and eventual ruin. It looks back on past glories, giving little thought to the future. Many Winter covenants burn out like an expended candle, but some manage to find the energy to renew themselves into a second Spring.

Other uses of the Season Metaphor

Some players use the season metaphor to describe the career of an individual magus. This usage is not canonical but it can be a useful model, and seems like a way characters might describe magi in the game world.

Time Period

Another use of the term is to depict a period of time in the game. Each Season, in this sense, usually proceeds from one solstice/equinox to the next, definign the traditional four astronomical seasons. Characters are advanced one season at a time, gaining experience and accomplishing deeds (and accruing decrepitude, aging, and so on).

However, this concept of Season is also taken to a more abstract level, to represent the amount of time someone devotes to a particular task. Thus, a peasant may have one free Season per year to do with as he pleases mechanically, but this doesn't mean that he genuianly takes the season off. Rather, it is meant to mechanically represent the peasant devoting time throughout the year to pursue his interests.

The Seasons are typically set according to the astrological, rather than climatic, periods in order to accomodate magi. Magi genuinly need to take the effect of the stars into consideration in their lab work, and so the astrological seasons are of greater significance than the agricultural ones in the game.

References

• "Seasonal Characters" in Hermes Portal Issue 5

Legacy Page

The history of this page before August 6, 2010 is archived at Legacy:season