Against the Dark Chapter Six: Peoples of the Transylvanian Border

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Chapter Six: Peoples of the Transylvanian Border

The Transylvanian border region contains a variety of people, many from smaller ethnicities not described in other chapters. Some groups have invaded from the east and remain, while others have been asked to settle here by the kings of Hungary. These settlers boost the population to prevent future invasion, and bring specialist skills that allow the rich natural resources of this region to be exploited. Aside from the groups mentioned here, each of the larger ethnic groups, which have their own chapters, are also represented in Transylvania's population.

The Cumans (Kipchacks)

The Cumans are a nomadic people that invaded the lands east of the Carpathians in the 11th century. Most retain their nomadic lifestyle, but some have settled into agriculture. The Cuman confederation controls a vast territory, stretching out into the depths of Asia, but lacks a central leader. Its members live in tribal groups, and these groups independently raid, colonize, trade, and negotiate with outsiders. Within the confederation are many different ethnic elements, the largest being Turkic and Alan.

The Cumans are a potent military force. The threat of Cuman invasion of Transylvania has led subsequent kings to move whole tribes of Szeklers from their traditional lands to those guarding the passes against the Cumans. King Bela of Hungary took this further and invited the Teutonic Knights to colonize the Burzenland in Transylvania, specifically because it was a province "facing the Cumans." He also used the threat of invasion by, or marital alliance with, the Cumans to demand concessions from the Pope.

The Asens — the rulers of Bulgaria have blood ties to the Cumans. The Cumans gave pivotal aid to the initial Bulgarian rebellion from Byzantine rule, sheltering the rebel princes after their first army was defeated, then providing them with a force of mercenaries as the core of their new army. The Bulgarians still depend on Cuman mercenaries in warfare. The Cumans always withdraw to their camps south of the Carpathians during the summer, to tend their livestock, and this influences Bulgarian military planning.

Raiding the Cuman lands is rare, and usually unsuccessful. It is easy to take Cuman land, because there are no towns in Cuman territory. It is, however, hard to keep this land, again because there are no towns.

This makes it difficult to garrison against the return of the expelled tribal group. The expelled group usually pushes out the invader, through a war of attrition. They are aided by other Cuman groups who do not favor foreign encroachment into Cuman lands.

Cuman religion is Tengrist, focusing on a sky god who is creator. The indigenous magicians are shamans, and have powers similar to those of the Hungarians taltos (see Hedge Magic Revised Edition, page 115) allowing scrying, weather control, rapid healing, and swift travel. The Cumans do not, it appears, have shamans equivalent in power to those seen in Bulgaria before Christianization eliminated them. Some members of House Tremere believe this indicates that something other than Christianization destroyed the most powerful local shaman groups, while other suggest that the Cumans do have powerful shamans, they just do not become involved in frontier wars, and therefore their magic is rarely witnessed.

The Cumans in War

Kaloyan was not in Adrianople for long, but he sent the Cumans against the Latins, to use the Cuman war techniques against them. Now it was the habit of the Latins to ride on prancing horses that were completely covered by armor, so that their charges against the enemy were slow. The Cumans, by contrast, were armored more lightly, so they attacked the enemy more freely. – George Acropolites

The Cumans … would attack, shoot their arrows and begin to fight with spears. Before long they would turn their attack into flight and induce the enemy to pursue them. Then they would show their faces instead of their backs … and struggle even more bravely. This they would do several times, and when they gained the upper hand … they would stop turning back again. Then they would draw their swords, release an appalling roar, and fall upon the Romans quicker than a thought.

– Niketas Chiontes.

A Potential Future

If your saga's history follows medieval history, the Mongols shatter the Cuman confederacy at the Battle of Kalka in 1223. 20,000 families of Cumans settle in Hungary, under the agreement that they will become Christians and fight the Mongols if they return. Other Cuman groups are incorporated into the Golden Horde and lose their distinctive identity. In 1237, a massive wave of migration makes Thrace a "desert" according to period writers. 10,000 families of Cumans enter the service of the Nicene Emperor in exchange for land. The two princes take Latin wives, but one remains pagan. In 1241, when the pagan prince dies, he is buried outside the walls of Constantinople with traditional rites including a burial mound, the sacrifice of 24 horses, and the voluntary human sacrifice of ten of his finest warriors.

The Szeklers and Pechengs

The Szeklers (Latin, Siculi) are the remnant of the army of Attila the Hun, left behind in the Tribunal by his son as a beach-head for the Hunnish army's return. Their name means "frontier guards." When the Magyars appeared a few centuries ago, claiming to be of Hunnish descent, the Szeklers allied with them. The Szeklers now speak Hungarian, but remain a separate class in modern Hungary, in part due to their military service.

The Szelkey are divided into six tribes, each with four branches. In war, each branch must provide 100 horsemen. Fields are farmed by branches, and pasture and arable land are never personal property among the Szeklers. The right to use land for a single year is determined annually by a system of bow-shots. Each branch is led by a war leader, and those Szeklers who are officers form the upper class, supported by farmers and cattle herders. From a Hungarian perspective, all war leaders answer to a count, who usually rules from near Miercurea Ciuc. In practice, the relationship is more complicated.

The Szeklers provide infantry, horse archers, and light cavalry to the Hungarian king. They are required to provide the vanguard of his army when it marches out and the rearguard of his army when it marches home. The size of this guard increases if the king himself leads the army. The Szeklers do not fight in wars to the north or west, although they are required to send mercenaries in their place. In exchange, all Szeklers are free men, and pay no taxes to the king. Each household does, however, give the king the gift of ox, marked with its sign, at his coronation, wedding, and the birth of an heir.

A few centuries ago, all Szeklers lived further south, in the territories now controlled by the Teutonic Knights. The movement of the Szekler people to the eastern edge of Hungary is a continuing process, assisted by the various monarchs. Szekler light missile cavalry are better suited to fighting Cuman raiders than the Byzantines.

As a nation they have a special magical power that defends them from genocide. If ever badly threatened, the ghosts of Atilla's army are drawn from beyond the grave to defend them.

Palace of the Giant King

The giants who live in the Szelker lands have a king. When this king is deposed or dies, his successor builds a new palace for himself, abandoning his predecessor's home. There are several sites in the Szelker lands that were once the palaces of giants. One is particularly famous because its king, the giant Balbona, would summon the other giants to conference with enormous golden bells. These were buried deep underground at Balbona's death, but still ring on feast days, which causes harmless earthquakes.

Good and Evil Faerie Courts

In the Szeklers' lands, the good faeries are ruled by one queen, the evil faeries by another. The good queen, named Firtos, has a palace of gold. The evil queen is named Tartos. Her palace is lit by three glowing diamonds the size of human heads, hung from golden chains. Her treasures are bars of gold, gold lions with carbuncle eyes, a gold chicken with her chicks, and gold casks filled with coins.

The Pechengs

The Pechengs were a loose confederacy of nomadic warriors who used to rule the western area of what is now Cumania. When the Byzantines defeated them and took their lands, they became Christians, and were given land in the southern Carpathians by the Hungarian kings. The Pechengs now help guard the passes that were once guarded against them.

Many Pecheng warriors entered Hermetic service when their lands were taken. Pecheng shamans also entered the service of House Tremere at this time. Pechengs are hospites as described in the Hungarians chapter.

Teutonic Knights and Transylvanian Saxons

The Teutonic Knights — more formally, the Order of the Hospital of St. Mary of the Germans in Jerusalem — are the youngest of the military orders of warrior-monks, founded some twenty years ago in the Holy Land. Although a young order, the Teutonic Knights have already become a significant presence in the Transylvanian Tribunal. For more information on the Crusading orders in general, see The Church, Chapter 7.

Origins

After the death of the Hohenstaufen emperor Friedrich Barbarossa in 1189, most of the German nobles who had joined the Third Crusade hurried back to their lands, leaving only a devout few to honor their vows and join the siege at Acre. However, the besieging armies were beset with disease, and the Hospitallers favored their own — the French and English — over the Germans. A group of crusaders from Bremen and Lübeck decided to found a hospital order for the German sick, and Duke Friedrich of Swabia garnered support from his brother the Emperor, the Templars, the Hospitallers, and the patriarch of Jerusalem. With such prestigious support, Pope Celestine III was quick to approve the new monastic order.

When more German crusaders arrived in the Holy Land in 1197, they found the Teutonic Order thriving, providing not only care for the sick and injured, but also hostels for the newly arrived, and money and food for the destitute. The frontier forts of the crusader kingdom were poorly garrisoned, and since the Teutonic Order was populated by former knights who had taken up the religious life, the new arrivals concluded that they could take on military as well as hospital duties; in 1198 the pope issued a new charter to this effect.

Customs and Structure

The body of laws that govern the Teutonic Order are known as the customs, and they are written in German so that every (literate) member can understand them. They involve vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. The Teutonic Knights are obliged to tend the sick, but where this is not compatible with their military and religious duties, the hospital duties are carried out by a specialized non-noble branch of the Teutonic Order. The knights attend services held at the usual canonical hours, and are required to wear priestly clothes covered with a white mantle bearing a black cross. Rather than be entirely abstemious, the Teutonic Knights are warned to shun secular gatherings where the wine runs freely and where light entertainment might entice them to sin. They are expected to avoid the company of women. Punishment for breaking the customs run from whipping and deprivation of food right up to spending months or years in shackles in the dungeons. Three crimes warrant expulsion and possibly execution: cowardice in the face of the enemy; going over to the infidels; and sodomy.

Each knight is supported by ten menat-arms, called half-brothers, or "graymantles" from the color of their surcoats. The graymantles are commoners, and serve as squires and sergeants for the knights they serve. They assist in maintaining his weapons and armor, caring for the horses, and attending their knight on hunts, which were permitted to the Teutonic Order explicitly by the papacy.

Each of the Teutonic Order's missions is commanded by a master, and the officer superior to them is the hochmeister ("high master") — the head of the Order. The hochmeister is elected by the general chapter for his lifetime or until he resigns. His role is primarily as a diplomat and overseer, meeting with important potentates and consulting with the pope, and he travels widely to visit various outposts of the Teutonic Order, reviewing discipline and overseeing its resources. Hermann von Salza has served as the hochmeister since his election in 1210. The hochmeister appoints his inner council, which consists of the masters, plus the treasurer, the grand commander, and the marshal. The treasurer is responsible for all the possessions of the Teutonic Order, providing not only food, horses, weapons, and armor, but also organizing the building of castles, churches, and hospitals. The grand commander is responsible for the day-today supervision of all activities not related to warfare. He administers the lesser officials, assists the treasurer, and conducts all correspondence of the Order. The grand commander also directs the Teutonic Order's forces in the Holy Land in the absence of the hochmeister. Finally, the marshal oversees the military preparation of the Teutonic Order, and is in command of training and tactics. The master of robes and the commander of the hospital are in theory his subordinates, but in practice are largely independent of the marshal's functions. As of 1220, the Teutonic Order has its headquarters in Acre, and has just two missions, one in the Holy Roman Empire, and a second in Transylvania.

The Teutonic Order in Transylvania

The invitation to Hermann von Salza and the Teutonic Order to take up lands in Transylvania was issued in 1211 immediately after the signing of a marriage contract between King Andrew II of Hungary and Count Hermann of Thuringia (head of the powerful Salza family) on behalf of their respective children. The king has given territory — the Burzenland — and immunities from tax and duties while retaining the right to coin money and to receive half the gold and silver mined. In return, the Teutonic Order is charged with defending the passes through the Carpathian mountains from incursions by the Cumans.

Brother Theoderich is the master of the mission in Transylvania, but with the hochmeister dividing his time between the Holy Land and Egypt, Theoderich has been left to run the Teutonic Order's operation in Transylvania without the guidance of the rest of the Order. The combination of the Teutonic Order's rapid expansion, Theoderich's lack of diplomatic skills, and the suspicion and jealousy of the Hungarian nobles promises to be an explosive mix. The knights have already made an enemy in the local bishop by refusing to recognize his own rights in the Burzenland. Nevertheless, the Teutonic Order has the support of the pope and is seeking even closer alliance with the papacy in an attempt to distance itself from the kingdom of Hungary.

Burzenland

The Burzenland lies within the Carpathian mountains. The Order of Teutonic Knights has the right to administer its own justice here and establish markets. In the nine years since occupying the area, the Teutonic Order has established several forts, and is in the process of completing five castles: Marienburg, Kronstadt, Rosenau, Schwarzenburg, and Kreuzburg. Kronstadt lies in the center of the other four, which are spaced twenty miles apart from each other. These castles form the focus for expansion into the Cuman lands, bolstered by Saxon immigrants (see insert).

The Transylvanian Saxons

Colonization of Transylvania by Germans started in the middle of the 12th century, but it was really under the Teutonic Knights that volunteer settlers from the Holy Roman Empire — principally from Saxony — began to emigrate here in substantial numbers. These settlers were needed by the Teutonic Knights to produce grain, wool, and meat for their Order, and grant them the self-sufficiency they desire. The Saxons also work in mines controlled by the Teutonic Knights to bring forth gold and silver (half of which they must give to the Hungarian crown) as well as iron ore (which they trade or smelt themselves).

The land settled by the Transylvanian Saxons is larger than that directly controlled by the Teutonic Order. The region is called Siebenbürgen by the Saxons, after their seven principal fortified towns: Bistritz, Hermannstadt, Klausenburg, Kronstadt, Mediasch, Mühlbach, and Schässburg. The Burzenland occupies just the southeastern part of this area.

The Future of the Teutonic Order in Transylvania

The ambition of the Teutonic Order proves to be its downfall in Transylvania. If your saga follows medieval history, King Andrew II returns home from crusade in 1222 to face a hostile nobility. They force from him an agreement called the Golden Bull that allows the nobility to govern the actions of the king. Nevertheless, he refuses to rescind the grant of the Burzenland, increasing the disaffection of his nobles.

In 1225, Hermann von Salza exploits his influence with the pope to place the Burzenland under his protection, making it a fief of the Holy See. This proves to be the end of the Teutonic Order in Hungary; while sympathetic to the Order, King Andrew II cannot permit the loss of valuable territory. When the knights refuse to leave without a second hearing, they are driven out by armed force.

Predictably, the Cumans exploit the weakness in Hungary's defenses to enter the Danubian basin, partly in order to relieve pressure for territory imposed by the horde of the Great Khan to their east. They remain a persistent problem to the Hungarians for the rest of the century.

Teutonic Knight Characters

Members of the Teutonic Order may be priests, knights, or graymantles (either men-at-arms or chirurgeon-physicians). The knights are all of noble birth, but some are drawn from the ministerales, or serf-knights of the Holy Roman Empire, and may enter the Order with very little (the Poor Flaw). Teutonic Knights very commonly carry relics (the Relic Virtue), often in the hilt of their swords.

The Teutonic Order is principally a fighting order, and values Martial Abilities over all else, but they also are schooled in Theology and Church Lore so as to better understand their mission. As monks as well as warriors, Teutonic Knights often invoke God's aid before entering battle against infidels or pagans (Realms of Power: the Divine, page 41), so knowledge of Dominion Lore is highly prized.

New Virtues

These new virtues are appropriate for Teutonic Knights.

Brother Chaplain

Minor, Social Status

The character is a priest of the Teutonic Order, which is like other priests except that the required Vow includes obedience and poverty, in addition to chastity. Outside of the Teutonic Order he is answerable only to the pope. He may purchase Academic Abilities during character generation. He wears the black cross of the Teutonic Order on a green surcoat. This Virtue is only available to male characters.

Brother Knight

Minor, Social Status

The character is a knight of the Teutonic Order, and it is his duty to be ready to fight infidels and pagans at any time. He has sworn a lifelong vow of obedience, poverty, and chastity, and is answerable only to his superiors and the pope. Unless he is Poor, he may have expensive weapons and armor, and two horses. He may take Academic and Martial Abilities during character generation. He wears the black cross of the Teutonic Order on a white mantle. This Virtue is only available to male characters.

Brother Sergeant

Minor, Social Status

The character is a member of the Teutonic Order, but not a knight or nobleman. He has sworn a vow (which may be lifelong or twenty years) of obedience, poverty, and chastity, but this may not be enforced as strictly for him as it would be for a brother knight. He is answerable only to his superiors and the pope. He may be a clerk or physician, in which case he can take Academic Abilities during character generation. Alternatively, he may be a man-at-arms, and can take Martial Abilities during character generation. Unless he is Poor, he may have superior equipment appropriate to his role; for a man-at-arms this means high-quality weapons and armor, and a horse. He wears the black cross of the Teutonic Order on a gray surcoat. This Virtue is only available to male characters.

Stories Involving the Teutonic Order

House Tremere and the Teutonic Order have similar goals in the region: to establish an autonomous state for the good of mankind under their respective guidance. The plan of the Teutonic Knights is to continue to extend their territory along the Danube River valley, occupying the land from the Burzenland to the Black Sea. Through their successful tactic of controlling swathes of countryside with garrisoned forts, they will be able to re-open the land route to Constantinople that has been unsafe to crusaders since the coming of the Cumans. The danger posed by these pagan nomads to the Hungarians and the Latin Empire is negated, with the Teutonic Order holding them back.

Currently, House Tremere has forbidden formal contact between magi of the Transylvanian Tribunal and the Teutonic Order. The Teutonic Order has also been charged by the pope with investigating heresy and diabolism, and the Tremere fear that the knights could view the Order of Hermes as a heretical, idolatrous, or even pagan entity due to its practice of magic, and thus claim that it falls under its remit to protect Christendom from such forces. It is unlikely that the Teutonic Knights will remain ignorant of the Order of Hermes for much longer. But for the moment, the less they know, the better — at least until an appropriate strategy can be worked out.

The Scholomance — a school purported to be run by the Devil himself — is an object of specific interest for the Teutonic Order, for it is believed to be located somewhere to the east of the Holy Roman Empire. The hochmeister has failed to discover anything other than the same story repeated again and again, and suspects it to be mere legend. The Order of Hermes knows differently (see "The Scholomance," later in this chapter).

Story Seeds: The Teutonic Order

A pagan hedge wizard who has had unfriendly contact with the Order of Hermes in the past is captured by a garrison of Teutonic Knights, and he confesses to them what he knows about magi. Even allowing for embellishment by this unfriendly witness, the Order of Hermes' secrecy could well work against it in this case. Since the Order of Hermes would rather that the Teutonic Knights remain unaware of its existence altogether, correcting their misapprehensions is in breach of the Tremere edict regarding secrecy. When the garrison start picking Hermetic targets, the characters are drafted to deal with this delicate situation. They must strike a fine balance in deciding what they reveal about the Order of Hermes' true purpose and existence or else simply eliminate the entire garrison and ensure there are no witnesses.

A More Holy Order

An alternative to a pious, but ultimately mundane, Teutonic Order is to cast them as truly holy warriors, fighting for God's Dominion. Their crusade against the Cumans is a natural extension of their holy mission to fight infidels and pagans. Since the Cumans are a "new" threat compared to the centuriesold fight against the Moors and Arabs, cadres of proselytizing priests are sent into Cuman territory in an attempt to save their souls prior to the military offensive.

In a more holy version of the Teutonic Order, the lands conquered by the knights carry a Dominion aura with a Brave temper (Realms of Power: The Divine, page 39). The knights themselves have an inner circle populated by a Holy Tradition of Divine wonder-workers, whose favored Methods and Powers are Invocation, Blessing, and Cursing, and the Supernatural Ability Sense Holiness & Unholiness.

New Blessing Guideline

Level 15: Extend the beneficial effects of a relic over a standard Group of men. Size modifiers may be added to extend the effect further. The target of the spell is the relic, not the men affected by the relic's powers.

He stands for the injustice of the people; Christian soldiers in their ranks

Invocation, Blessing 30
R:** Touch, D: Sabbath, T: Ind

Up to ten men are granted the Magic Resistance offered by a single relic; this does not stack with Magic Resistance granted by other relics, but does stack with Magic Resistance offered by other Divine sources. Furthermore, any demon attacking any of the affected group is affected by the relic's Scourging of Infernal power (Realms of Power: The Divine, page 45) — demons cannot harm the protected men if their Infernal Might is less than the Divine Might of the relic, and even if it exceeds the relic's Might, they suffer damage equal to its Divine Might every round they continue to attack. The affected men must remain as a coherent group to be continually affected for the entire duration. Only the wielder of the relic can use its Faith points as Confidence points.

(Base 15, +1 Touch, +2 Sabbath)

A More Profane Order

Some sagas might prefer the Teutonic Order to be a sinister organization that seeks to gain dominance over man on behalf of its infernal masters. Under this option, the Order is less concerned with exterminating pagans as it is amassing political control over territory. The infernal Teutonic Order is obsessed with occult knowledge, and might capture shamans, witches, and taltos in order to learn their secrets. A fair few of the Order's upper echelons are goetic sorcerers (Realms of Power: The Infernal, page 114), and the rest are willing diabolists who augment the powers of their masters by participating in infernal ceremonies. The demons summoned by the Teutonic Order are used to exert control over the mundane populace, either through intimidation and fear or else through possession and blackmail.

The Swords of the Teutonic Order

In a saga with an Infernally-tainted Teutonic Order, favored knights are gifted with swords prepared by the goetic sorcerers of the Order. Each great sword has a demon bound within it, which serves as a receptacle for the following effect. Owners of these swords have reported that they can hear the demon bound within whispering to them in their dreams.

Bite Deep and Drink

Incantation, Consumption 37
R: Touch, D: Mom, T: Ind
Pen 0, 3/day

Upon successfully striking a target with the sword, instead of inflicting normal damage, the wielder of the sword can instead elect to inflict an Incapacitating wound. This simultaneously heals the wielder's most serious wound — up to and including an Incapacitating wound. This effect has to Penetrate any Magic Resistance.

(Base 30, +1 Touch; +2 3/day)

Using the Teutonic Order in Your Saga

Any of the three versions of the Teutonic Order presented here could be a foe to individual magi and/or the Order of Hermes in general. The biggest danger would be for the Order of Hermes to be considered heretical in its use of magic, because this could cause the Teutonic Knights to pay more attention to the wizards who live in their midst.

Likewise, the Teutonic Order could just as easily be an ally, although one used carefully to avoid breaking the Code of Hermes. The knights have few friends among the Hungarians, and they are isolated from the main chapter of their Order. A hand offered in friendship may well be accepted, even if the intent isn't pure.

The Vlachs

The native people of the northern areas of the Tribunal are called "Vlachs," a Byzantine term coined in the 10th century. The Vlachs live north of the River Danube in the eastern portion of the Kingdom of Hungary, both north and south of the Carpathian Mountains. The people refer to themselves as rumân or roman, descendants of the original inhabitants of the area. Like the Tribunal as a whole, this area was frequently repopulated by foreign invaders and migratory tribes, and it is difficult to specify how native the current people may be. The first named tribe, the Getae, were conquered by Darius during the Persia wars described by Herodotus (sixth century B.C.). Later conquered by the Roman Empire, who called them Dacii (the Dacians), the population continued under Roman rule. Roman influence had a lasting effect, and the area was from then after called "Dacia." Generations of commercial contact and intermarriage between Roman and Dacian blurred the physical and cultural distinctions of both people. When the Roman administration withdrew from the area in 275, they left behind a conglomeration of Romanized Geto-Dacian people, mostly farmers and sheepherders.

With the urban centers' defenses abandoned, the pastoral Vlachs became the victims of other migrating tribes. First the Visigoths, then the Huns, the Gepids, and the Avars pushed the Vlachs further away from the area's cities and into the remote wilderness. Each century-long occupation influenced the Vlachs' culture, as more intermarriages and cultural borrowings diluted their ethnicity. The great migration of the Slavs in seventh century swept through Dacia with little resistance, but rather than envelop and extinguish the race, the area was large enough for Slavs and Vlachs to coexist. Dacia has always been fertile, with topography equally suitable for growing cereal and raising sheep, and the native Vlachs have easily accepted and adapted to foreign rule. This trend continued during the invasions of the Magyars in the ninth century and the smaller imprint of the Pechengs in the 10th. While each wave of invaders brings new people and new cultural trappings, they ultimately leave nothing more than a simple impression on the Vlachs.

The Vlachs have three social groups: the land-owning noble boyars, dependent peasants, and independent peasants. Boyars who hold power are called jupani (singular jupan), cnezi (singular cneaz), or voievozi (singular voievod), all equivalent titles to a feudal duke. Boyars and their warrior entourages live in large settlements full of dependent peasants. Large communes of independent peasants also exist, called obote, which are self-governing economic settlements run by elected officials and whose inhabitants hold the land in common ownership. Communes are not completely autonomous; they must pay tribute to the ruling government body (in this case the Magyars of the Hungarian Kingdom). Commune citizens have more rights than dependent peasants, the greatest being the right to relocate at will. As in other countries of Mythic Europe, dependent peasants are tied to the land they work and cannot move about without their lord's permission. Most of the settlements, both boyar-owned and communes, are located on the vast plains and fertile river basins of the area and at the footsteps of the Carpathian mountains. Communes are more numerous in the east and boyar-held settlements proliferate in the west, situated closer to the political center of the ruling Hungarian Kingdom. Among the grand tally of Vlach population centers, communes outnumber boyar-held settlements.

The Vlachs, along with the Greeks, are one of the oldest Christian races. According to legend the Apostle Andrew brought Christianity to the Vlachs, preaching in the Dobrogea region located between the Black Sea and the lower Danube. Most of the area was converted by the second and third centuries. Even though the Roman Empire had fled the area, the Vlachs maintained ties with Roman Christians, so that in the 13th century Vlachs follow the Western Orthodoxy of the Roman Church instead of Eastern Orthodoxy, like many of the area's neighbors. Vlach bishops continue to owe their alliance to the pope rather than the Byzantine patriarch. Like the Slavs who live in the same area, the Vlachs worshiped a single god before their conversion and this preference for monotheism facilitated the acceptance of Christianity.

Geography

The Carpathian Mountains are a central feature of the area inhabited by the Vlachs, forming a backwards L through the middle of the combined regions. To the north and west of the mountains is Transylvania, a derivation of the Latin words "trans" (beyond) and "sylva" (forest) combined to refer to the land "on the other side of the forest." The entire area sits atop a high plateau rising 1,200 feet on average above sea level. More Vlach lands sit to the south of this arm of the Carpathians, resting between the mountains and the Danube River. More Vlach lands sit further to the east of the Carpathians, past the Milcov River and south of the Cheremosh River, which separates the territory from the Ukraine. This hilly area levels out into plains as the area runs to the Black Sea. In the past this entire area was called Dacia by the Romans, and in the 13th century is the eastern reaches of the Kingdom of Hungary. These areas will find a national and geographic identity in the coming century.

Story Seed: The Waters Furious

Behind a Carpathian mountain named "The Priest's Mountain" lies the small Vlach village of Ikafalva. A small brook called the Furus runs along one edge of the town. According to old Magyar legends, the village founder was a famously strong Magyar, not a Vlach, who claimed the surrounding countryside for his people. Shouting that he was a warrior-servant of the Goddess Furuzsina, the hero fell in the final battle that secured the area for his tribe. A spring spouted from where his blood touched the earth, and continues to be the source of the Furus. According to the nearby villages, the people of Ikafalva are unnaturally strong because they drink from these waters.

The waters are a source of conflict between the Vlachs living in the village and the various Hungarian clans who live to the west. Both claim the land, and the brook, as their own and occasionally fight over it. Compounding matters is the fact that the brook is magical, and under a full moon a pawn of Aquam vis can be siphoned from the source. It is not especially difficult to gather the vis, under normal circumstances, and the nearby oppidum Scholomance regularly sends its older Gifted children to accomplish this task. It only becomes dangerous during skirmishes between the Vlachs and the Hungarians. Stories could involve children player characters getting caught up in such a conflict, or adult magi (or companions) rescuing children thus involved.

Capitols

Each area has a main city that historically will become the principality's capitol sometime during the 13th century. In 1220 each city is run by the area's most powerful voivode, all of whom are currently vassals of a more powerful neighbor. While securing independence this early in the 13th century is historically incorrect, it could serve as an interesting foundation or backdrop for a saga.

The capitol of Transylvania is Alba Iulia (White Castle), built atop the foundations of the ancient Roman city Apulum, one of the largest population centers in Roman Dacia. The present voivode of Alba Iulia is a vassal of the King of Hungary. South of the Carpathians, Câmpulung is the major urban settlement in the area south of the mountains. Built on the remains of a Roman colony, Câmpulung sits 15 miles south of the Bran Pass, a heavily trafficked mountain pass that cuts through the southern Carpathians and allows access to Transylvania. The lands further east do not have a city that will become its capitol, this area being much more autonomous than western Vlach lands. The major ethnic group, a Vlach-Slav mix called the Brodnici, owe allegiance to Suzdal, a principality in the Ukraine. Other groups are vassals of more powerful Vlach and Transylvanian voivodes, but the area as a whole is not united.

The Bran Pass

Running through the Southern Carpathians from Campulung to Kronstadt, the Bran Pass has been used by travelers for centuries. The 13th century sees the beginning of several defensive fortresses built along the pass, whose importance will increases dramatically in the decades to come. The leading voivode of Transylvania has built a simple stone castle at the northern entrance to the pass, and two wooden castles lie along the pass, built by the resident Teutonic Knights. The voivode of Câmpulung has plans to build a fortress at the southern end of the pass and hopes to ask his Saxon neighbors for assistance.

These early stages of territorial control could easily lead to war-mongering, as any Tremere can see. Stable, easily identified borders usually lead to independence. Closing the Bran Pass would further separate the southern plains from Hungary, allowing the leading voivode to break his feudal bonds. House Tremere can get pulled into this situation from nearly every side, depending on how closely connected they are to any of the principal parties. A southern voivode could ask for assistance in building a castle, or a Transylvanian voivode might ask for help in destroying a Teutonic Knights' castle. Every mundane group has a small military force at hand, which could readily lead to small-scale military actions as they raid each other's territory. Perhaps House Tremere merely wants to keep the current status quo and moves to anonymously diminish the military strength of all participants equally.

Story Seed: The Bran Pass

Because the Bran Pass is an important land route, House Tremere built a zenodochium in the pass (see "The Hospital," Chapter 7). Located atop a steep cliff face on the southern end of the pass, a group of southern knights has recently taken up residence, harassing commercial traffic as it passes. The leader, a second-cousin of the King of Hungary's nephew, is a rebellious man who hopes to raise a Vlach force and ultimately confront royal forces. House elders want the zenodochium reclaimed and ask the player characters to address this situation. This is a good test for young magi. Do they kill everyone and hide the bodies, perhaps drawing royal attention, or find a subtler way to remove the knights?

The Cult of Zalmoxis

Before worshiping Christ, the native Geto-Dacians worshiped Zalmoxis, a monotheistic deity favored by the rich and powerful. As more and more of their countrymen converted to Christianity, worship of Zalmoxis became hidden, retreating underground and into the hidden recesses of the Carpathian Mountains. Similar to the various pagan Rome mystery cults, the Cult of Zalmoxis shrouded itself with secrets, obfuscating the truth and limiting religious rites to a select few. The wealthy and arrogant congregation stubbornly continued their zealous devotions, having both the means and tenacity to continue the cult for centuries.

According to the cult, before Zalmoxis became a god he was a student of Pythagoras, who taught the young man magic on the island of Samos. Continuing his education, Zalmoxis visited Egypt and learned of the Egyptians' mystical knowledge about immortality and reincarnation. Returning to his native land, Zalmoxis meditated in a secret cavern hidden atop Kogaionon, a mountain already held holy by his people. After three years Zalmoxis resurfaced to teach knowledge and magical learning to his people and preach about the immortality of the soul. Others say that Zalmoxis died in his cave and was resurrected. It is not unusual for a cult to exaggerate tales of its founder, but having these same stories repeated in the writings of Herodotus, Plato, and early Christian authors is unnerving. No one calls him a god except his cult; Christian authors call Zalmoxis a charlatan and both Herodotus and Plato call him a man.

The size of the cult of Zalmoxis isn't known, but both princes and priests suspect that it continues in several Vlach principalities. Evidence of the cult's rites can be found, especially the gruesome tradition in which, every five years, a messenger is sent to Zalmoxis. This messenger is thrown atop a pointed spear to accomplish this. If the spear kills him it means Zalmoxis has accepted the messenger and is pleased. If the spear does not kill him, Zalmoxis is displeased and the messenger is refused entry into the god's otherworldly eternity.

Story Seed: The Return of Zalmoxis

The southern range of mountains that encloses the Maramures region contains several separate groups of cultists, each led by a vrajitoarea (plural: vrajitoarele) a Vlach with the powers of a folk witch (Hedge Magic Revised Edition, Chapter 3). Unlike some folk witches in other Tribunals, the vrajitoarele are associated with the Magic realm and none of their powers are infernally tainted. One group is led by a charismatic Gifted vrajitoarea, who is slowly asserting his influence over the other cultists. His Gift is not helping him and the others remain aloof, until it is discovered that one of the wizards who lives in the nearby hollowed-out mountain is called Zalmoxis. Claiming that their god has returned from the dead, again, the Gifted vrajitoarea begins uniting the cults, saying that the other wizards are keeping Zalmoxis imprisoned and he must be freed by his faithful followers. Naturally, the magi of Lycaneon know nothing about this.

The Oppidum of Lycaneon

Lycaneon is the physical embodiment of many ancient Tremere schemes for power, or safety. It was originally the domus magna of House Tremere, the "throne from which to rule the world," in the words of the Founder. It has never served in that role, and now acts as one of the great manufactories of the Order.

History

The Founder Tremere established Lycaneon as the center of his House. He was drawn by the enormous deposits of gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, and salt found in these mountains. Lycaneon served as his domus magna until the Sundering, and is connected to Harco with this Tribunal's Mercere Portal. Following the Sundering, Tremere moved his base of operations to Coeris, but retained Lycaneon as the manufacturing center for his House.

Lycaneon is busiest when war is expected, or when rebuilding the House's stores of material after a conflict. It was expanded, and staffed to capacity, for many decades after the Schism War. Its resources were fully mobilized almost a year before the Corruption of Tytalus was formally disclosed at Tribunal, which suggests House Tremere knew that conflict was coming.

Lycaneon currently houses 14 magi. This is above the peacetime baseline, which is eight magi, but far below full capacity, which is 32. The disruption to the Theban Tribunal caused by the Fourth Crusade has weakened House Tremere's rivals. Some of the magi who would usually be acting as hoplites at Seuthopolis have been reallocated here, and are pursuing projects for the Prima. A pair of Verditius magi have also been hired, bringing the total to three. In peacetime, the Tremere usually have only one Verditius employed here, as Verditius magi are so touchy with each other. Two more of the oppidum's magi are Bonisagus performing original research using spare laboratories: they have agreed to train the Tremere in any useful breakthroughs they develop.

Gold Isn't Really Worth Much

All of the gold in the mountain on which Lycaneon rests was mined out, by grogs with magic items, in the first few decades of the covenant's life. There are slightly over four thousand tons of gold, and twice that of silver, sitting in a vast storage cavern underneath Lycaneon. There is very little the Tremere can use it for.

Gold, the Tremere have discovered by virtue of having more of it than anyone else, isn't valuable unless you can spend it. You can only spend a little gold in any area before suddenly it becomes a lot less valuable than it was. This is because there are only a tiny number of rich people in Mythic Europe who can afford to buy gold at a high price.

Silver is easier to spend, because money is literally made out of it. But large amounts of silver added to a kingdom's economy, as most recently seen in Stonehenge, causes economic collapse. Economic collapse causes poverty. Poverty causes diabolism. So, spending too much silver causes diabolism. Because of this, the Tremere now advocate laws that limit how much wealth magi can create.

The other problem is that gold isn't, in itself, very useful. It's great for enchanted items, if you want them to be soft and heavy, and to wear away with simple handling. Gold doesn't rust, but most stones don't rust either, and mundane nobles don't act like idiots when they see a polished stone. Silver is more useful, because many of the local faeries either love or hate it, and so it can be swapped for vis or used in weapons, and these are consumables.

Few other Houses understand this, but the mining at Lycaneon ended House Tremere's territorial ambitions. Land, like gold, wasn't worth anything except the labor of the people on it, to gather its natural products, like vis. This meant that expansion was only necessary when it gained a strategic resource that wasn't cheaply duplicable inside the Tribunal, and which couldn't be attained more easily with trade.

The way for the House to be powerful was, they concluded, to have more magi in it or, given that a sudden rise in the number of Tremere would alarm the rest of the Order, to have more magi doing the things the House wanted them to do.

Setting and Description

Lycaneon is a forested mountain that has been hollowed out using Terram magic. This has created a massive facility, much of which is mothballed, awaiting a project or crisis that suits each particular section. The aura of Lycaneon is, in some places, exceptionally high (9), but areas that cause Warping are usually vacant, as there is plenty of workspace, most of the time, in safer areas.

Geography

The covenant is inside a mountain, which is surrounded by many high, steep peaks. These overlook a valley, where the weather is cooler than in much of the rest of the Tribunal during winter, but surprisingly warm in summer. Lycaneon is connected by subterranean tunnels to the Sasar River, from which it draws its water. Locally this is called the River of the Ladies. This perhaps refers to nymphs, handmaidens of the goddess Danu, who dwell in the depths of all the streams that eventually flow into the Danube.

This valley is part of a region called Maramures. This portion of the Tribunal was never conquered by the Romans, because the terrain made it impractical. Dacian religious practices continued in this region far longer than in the rest of Hungary. The wolves of the mountains around Lycaneon claim their ancestors were humans, who worshipped pagan gods while in wolf form.

Structure

Lycaneon seems to be made of endless levels of passages, but that's an impression fostered to confuse outsiders. The mountain has been hollowed into 16 levels, each square in plan. Each level is slightly larger than the one above. The levels are connected with five shafts that rise through the center of the structure, and from the corners of the ninth level. These can be accessed using magical items that allow flight. The most basic of these are wooden pallets, which covenfolk use to move supplies both between levels and along the corridors. There are also stairs and trapdoors connecting most levels, but these are little used.

Above ground there are six highly defensible buildings connected together in a great hexagon. They were designed by Tremere himself, and look exactly like House Tremere's detractors would expect. Basalt blocks link in a Romanesque building that encircles the mountain's summit, brooding at the world through storm clouds. From each vertex rises a curved tower, giving the whole structure the appearance of a vast, black crown. The wide, dark road to the massive doors is lined with golden statues, designed with Imperial themes.

Aesthetic

Lycaneon was designed, initially, as the center of House Tremere, by Tremere himself. Much of it has been re-purposed and extended, but the large public areas of the covenant have a grand aesthetic to them that is meant to impress, and perhaps overawe, visitors. Tremere lived before the invention of Gothic architecture, so he could not use soaring spaces and natural light to bring grandeur to his covenant. Instead it uses surface texture, ornamentation, and scale.

This aesthetic doesn't suit the modern House, but renovating the older areas of Lycaneon has never been a priority. It is filled with imperialist detail incongruous to the modern House. Most walls in the older section are incised with martial scenes, aphorisms by Tremere, or decorative elements with a Roman flavor. Lycaneon uses gold in its decoration, something modern Tremere consider gauche.

The room containing the Mercere Portal, for example, contains an 18-foot statue of Tremere, with a huge eagle of solid gold alighting on his wrist. Similarly, the Grand Refectory has a statue of Tremere (this time only 12 feet tall — none of his statues are human height) with his hand upon the head of a subdued dragon, again made of gold. These statues, which are merely representative of his general preference, have been retained because each is a magic item. They are useful for defence if Lycaneon is attacked, but also immediately assail anyone who attempts to remove them.

Culture and Traditions

Lycaneon is the oppidum where House Tremere makes magical and specialized mundane items. Its membership is flexible, because members of the House often travel to Lycaneon to use the excellent laboratories here, if engaged in a significant project. Its long-term members are very informal with each other, particularly by the standards of House Tremere. Their work is non-competitive and, within the select group of senior Tremere, not secret. This fosters a collegial atmosphere, suitable for honest discussions of expensive and dangerous research.

Saga Seed: Providing Solutions

The player characters form a team sent by Lycaneon when a magus pays for a solution to a setback he's encountered; they must also design a magic item that will solve it. A good solution story involves player characters researching a problem, finding an innovative way to solve it, and then building, or ordering built, the device they have prescribed. Twists can be added by making the problem not what it seems, the device have undesired effects, or the client unable to pay.

A List of Weird Assignments

• The client covenant is surrounded by agricultural land filled with cabbages. Is there any practical way to weaponize a cabbage?
• The client needs to sneak mundane agents, with magic items, past a potentate's faerie bodyguards. Is there a way to make magic items that you can swallow, but that automatically trigger the character's vomit reflex after a time? At command? Can they also disintegrate the rest of the stomach contents, for stealthy and hygienic reasons?
• The client is trying to find a better way to abduct Gifted babies. What's a good way to kidnap a baby and smuggle him past city guards? Can you put one inside a living horse?
• The client covenant is located on top of a magical mine that oozes custard. What can they possibly do with all this custard?
• The clients are beset by demons that are terrified of their own reflections. How can they use this to their advantage, without making the covenant one huge reflective surface?

• The client covenant is sick of ships passing their riverbend without paying the toll. Can the characters come up with something better than the old-fashioned chain across the river?

Manufacturing

Tremere designed Lycaneon as a manufactuary, and the House has continually upgraded the facilities here since his death, but the covenant actually makes surprisingly few magic items. With a few obvious exceptions, the Order's history is peaceful. This means that House Tremere's strategic reserve is complete. Lycaneon has tremendous surplus capacity because it's designed to replenish the strategic reserve rapidly during emergencies, but in 1220 that's not necessary.

Lycaneon's magi create new magic and mundane items to fill holes in the strategic reserve. These occur for three reasons. Some items are used up in the daily operation of the House, or in pursuit of its projects. Occasionally a Hermetic Breakthrough, a new spell, or a new strategy makes part of the reserve redundant. Finally, Tremere magi continually create new projects, and some of these require novel equipment.

Many mundane items are produced here using magical equipment for the heavier work, with finishing by skilled mundane artisans. Items of military significance are then stored in Circle wards that prevent decay. There are caverns full of arrows and rooms filled with swords stored here, for example.

The Infernal Aura of Körösfö

Once there was a town called Körösfö, made the richest in the Tribunal by gold and silver mines. Every person who lived there was as rich as a nobleman. Their children wanted for nothing, and had the best philosophers as teachers, but they were never taught to work, being so wealthy that it was not necessary.

When the older generation had passed away, none of their heirs knew how to work, and so they did not value resting on the Sabbath. They ceased attending church, and made their lives a series of feasts and parties. Eventually they decided that their own houses were too small for the dance they wished to have, and so they selected the church as the only building large enough. But none of them realized that the dance was to be held on Good Friday. When the first strains of the musicians began, when the first step was taken, God drove the town into the earth.

The damned can sometimes be heard screaming in the fields that cover what once was Körösfö. Every so often a peasant will discover the massive gold cross that adorned the very top of the church's spire. Unable to scratch the gold from it, and needing proper tools and the help of neighbors to remove it, he hides the cross while seeking aid. He then cannot find it on his return.

Perhaps God allows the cross to be found every so often to allow virtuous men to redeem the fools of Körösfö. Or perhaps it is merely a reminder, and a warning, that unearned gold is morally corrosive.

When visitors ask why each ingot kept in Lycaneon has the word Körösfö inscribed on its surface, they are told this story.

Staging Area

Lycaneon has this Tribunal's Mercere Portal to Harco. This makes it the obvious staging area for military forces being dispatched to deal with problems in distant Tribunals. Player characters who have been called to form part of such a force may be sent off on their own to deal with side issues, while waiting for a member of their force to finish a seasonal lab project.

Saga Seed: Rapid Response Force

In this saga, the Prima of Tremere has decided to curry the goodwill of distant covenants by establishing a team of military specialists who can be rapidly, and publicly, deployed to other Tribunals to aid covenants in combat. The player characters bivouac and resupply at Lycaneon, but are sent through the network to deal with problems that appear near any of the covenants on the Harco network of portals. As the saga progresses, the characters discover a link between the combat zones they are subduing — like a cluster of faeries, or separate diabolist groups serving a single master. Suitable foes include:

• Faeries of different themes.
• Tiny demons that gather together to create large demons.
• Magic traditions from the Order's fringes.
• Vast magical creatures.
• A group of hedge magicians in a welldefended site.
• Corrupted Hermetic magi.
• Raiding Diedne magi (surprise!) or faeries pretending to be them.

Refugee Camp

When a crisis occurs, and multiple covenants fall, the Order has more members than it can house. Traditionally these magi have been drafted to deal with the problem, and then absorbed by other covenants, helped to reconstruct their own covenants, or sent to found Spring covenants on the edges of the Order. House Tremere, however, believes that the refugees from crisis are, almost by definition, poorly suited to solving the crisis which has destroyed their home. Any problem they could not manage surrounded by their covenant's defenses, supplied by their covenant's resources, and abetted by their more militant sodales, they will not be able to solve as guerrillas defended with simple wards, scavenging from the land, and without military support.

Lycaneon has 32 laboratories, with various specializations, and space for many more sancta. This ridiculously large number is a vestige of the Schism War. Lycaneon was redesigned to house the huge number of refugees that would have flooded east if House Diedne had dominated western Europe. This was to keep displaced magi lacking military aptitude as participants in the war effort. All magi on the Tremere side knew that if their covenant fell, and they had nowhere else they preferred to go, they could flee to a Mercere Portal, get to Harco, and then they would be safe and useful at Lycaneon.

Story Seed: Covenant Failure

Storyguides can use oppidum of Lycaneon as a second-chance setting. This means that storyguides can design stories in which the player characters play for high stakes without worrying that if they fail, the saga will end. Following a crushing defeat, the player characters instead fight their way clear of nearby enemies and retreat to Lycaneon. After years of suitable preparation, both political and magical, they retake their covenant's site.

Mundane Inhabitants

The inhabitants of Lycaneon, and the small towns that surround it, are descended from the miners that Tremere bought to this oppidum at its foundation. Their culture and economy have been dominated by House Tremere for hundreds of years, and so they are dissimilar to any mundane culture. Grogs who retire from the service of the covenant often settle in these towns. The descendants of the various specialists employed in Lycaneon continue their ancestral crafts, so a wide variety of odd manufactures can be found here. Redcaps ship many of these products throughout the Tribunal.

The residents of these towns speak a dialect of Latin, are for the most part literate, and have a grasp of commercial mathematics. Each village elects three leaders, and these meet regularly at a "Tribunal" to discuss border issues, trade, and crime. Women often rise to leadership. Local warriors are also trained as mountain skirmishers, and are skilled with bows, axes, and short swords.

Lycaneon Wolves

Lycaneon's name refers to the packs of magical white wolves that are the custodians of these mountains. Tremere made the dominant wolf of the mountain his familiar, and many of his descendants similarly seek a white wolf as their companion. The House's philosophy seems similar to wolf practices of pack loyalty and alloparenting, which may have entered Tremere's thoughts through his familiar bond. This, in turn, makes wolves suitable familiars for his descendants.

The wolves of the mountains claim that their ancestors were humans, who were turned into wolves as part of a religious ceremony. They were stranded in animal shape following the Silencing of the Oracles, an ancient calamity. Sometimes a cub is born who is a throwback to these ancestors, and becomes human on the first, middle, and last nights of summer. With training these strange children can control their transformations, and they enter the service of the House in various roles. These wolves sometimes marry humans, and their children seem more prone than other children to nightwalking in wolf shape (See Hedge Magic: Revised Edition Chapter 6 for details on Nightwalkers.)

Magi

There are currently 14 magi at Lycaneon, but most have been left undescribed so that storyguides may flesh out the oppidum as needed.

Archmagus Albertus of Tremere, Praeco of Transylvania

Age: 58
Personality Traits: Likes tinkering with machines +3, Humorous +2, Prefers Rego, Terram, and Vim. His specialization in Rego is known, which makes him comparatively ineffective in Certamen.
Privilege: Cives

Albertus is the magus responsible for allocating work in Lycaneon, and making sure that projects come to fruition on time. He is the magus most likely to commission pieces from player characters skilled in magic item fabrication. He is also the person characters negotiate with when they want to buy or borrow a magic item. He likes to keep up with who is in the Tribunal, and what they are doing, because constructing teams is one of his most valuable skills, and he needs to know what "raw material" is available. Albertus is a Rego specialist, and by initial training he's an engineer.

Albertus is one of the youngest archmagi in the Order: he is only in his late fifties. He is a popular target for challengers. Albertus realizes that his relatively low level of magical skill means he is likely to lose his maximum number of challenges quickly. He has selected as his challenge "Donating the most useful item to House Tremere after three years of work."

This particular challenge has many useful features. It excludes many Verditius magi, who are unwilling to give away excellent examples of their work. It is a long trial, and so unsuited to many challengers who would like to complete the whole test during a single Tribunal meeting. Even if he loses, House Tremere gains a wonderful magical item. Only a handful of members of House Tremere know the entirety of the strategic reserve, so his challenger's item may be less useful, even if more powerful, because House Tremere already has something similar. So far, he has only faced one challenge, which he won.

Albertus has no plan currently to challenge for Primushood, although he is sure he'll want it eventually. If he becomes Primus, then the Tribunal's network of secret roads, private coaching houses, and hidden hospitals will be the focus of a tremendous building program. New spells will be commissioned from researchers across the Order. Redcaps will scout routes, and other magi will be sent to clear them of troublesome creatures. Skilled magic item crafters from across the Order will receive invitations to work, and House Tremere may sponsor a prize at the Verdi competition. House Tremere's cache of engineers will be fully occupied for many years.

Arhmina of Ex Miscellanea

Age: 31
Personality Traits: Prone to wander +3, Patiently vengeful +2, Specializes in Rego and Vim.
Privilege: Colona

Arhmina is a young Moorish sorceress from Iberia, who has been asked to Lycaneon because she is willing to aid House Tremere in developing counterspells against her own tradition. Her motivations for this are obscure. Gossip indicates that she lost a series of magical duels against a rival who wanted to marry her, and wants protection, then revenge. Arhmina is also to be paid handsomely with an excellent longevity ritual, access to fine study materials, and magic items specifically tailored to harm her rival. If she is particularly useful, when she returns home, Tremere reinforcements will be sent to participate in her confrontation.

Arhmina doesn't plan to stay in Transylvania for more than a decade, but while she is here, she wants to fill her time usefully. She plans to foster her Arts, learn about the odd spirits of the dark mountains, visit Constantinople, and perhaps head to Mecca. Player characters may meet her as she travels the Tribunal, or makes plans for further adventures in the East.

Clement of Tremere

Age: 45
Personality Traits: Likes commanding battles +3, Loves chess +2. Specializes in Rego, Perdo, Mentem, and Vim
Privilege: Cives

Clement is a middle-aged Tremere who specializes in combat-related Mentem spells. He's a necromancer, and was initially trained as a magical spy.

He has been recalled to Lycaneon as part of the Prima's project to find more effective ways to extend the power of the House into the Levant. His current research project involves finding ways to influence the minds of the spirits from which Arab sorcerers derive their power.

Clement is particularly interested in meeting Muslim magicians, to determine if there are other simple wards for these spirits. He works closely with Arhima of Ex Miscellanea. He also spends time in the Muslim towns founded by the King of Hungary for his public servants. The folk magicians here have often emigrated due to pressure from more powerful sorcerers in the Levant, and they have no qualms about working for Christian employers.

His spells, thus far, are based on two complementary strategies. The creatures seem to be averse to the name of Allah. This can be projected at some distance using powerful Creo Imaginem effects. Also, many djinni are apparently made of "smokeless fire." This might leave them vulnerable to environmental effects, outside their Magic Resistance, which cause freezing air temperatures. Clement is not skilled in this style of magic, and would value a collaborator who is.

Phillip of Tremere

Age: 32
Personality Traits: Fascinated by the varieties of rare wood +3, Enjoys shipbuilding +2. Prefers Muto, Rego, Herbam, and Terram.
Privilege: Cives

Phillip is a youthful Herbam specialist of some renown for spells involving the magical creation and maintenance of siege engines. His current project involves looking at different types of magically created wood, to see if particular species are better suited for magical boat building than others. He is not the first magus to do this, but his approach is tediously systematic, involving scale model tests in large tanks throughout his vast laboratory.

Philip particularly values samples of rare woods. The examination of these reduces the Finesse required to replicate that species with magic. Once Phillip has determined a preferred wood, his recommendations will be diffused through the vexillation of Tremere magi seeking ways to make ships a dependable combat platform for magicians.

Phillip has an arcane connection to Leviathan, House Tremere's mothballed naval base on the Adriatic coast. If a naval war breaks out, he will likely redeploy there. His skill at crafting naval parts, reinforced by the facilities at Leviathan, means that House Tremere's main lack will be crews, not hulls, in a naval war. He is often at Shrouded Bay, tinkering with elements of the Tremere and Mercere fleets.

Too young to consider Primushood for many decades, Phillip is fascinated by the idea that the many lakes of the Tribunal connect to the sea through underground passages. This is demonstrated by the flotsam and bones that wash up on their coasts. Phillip would love to create a naval base in the mountains of Hungary, which access a sea through these tunnels. Some say the lakes are linked to the Black or Adriatic Seas, but others suggest that the tunnels go as far as the Baltic. Who knows what horrors lurk in the tunnels, though? If he were made Primus tomorrow, an expedition into one of the sea-linked lakes would be his favorite project.

Archmagus Zalmoxis of Verditius

Age: 70
Personality Traits: Vain +2, Specializes in crafting longevity potions.
Privilege: Hospis

The senior Verditus in this Tribunal, Zalmoxis has worked here for over forty years. He specializes in Corpus effects, particularly those that allow battlefield healing and cure diseases. He is also skilled at the creation of longevity rituals. Zalmoxis is named after a local pagan god, but has no direct link to the ancient cult.

A persistent problem for House Tremere is that their magical focus, certamen, precludes any member having a magical focus suitable for making longevity rituals. Lesser longevity rituals are often purchased from young Verditus magi. Excellent longevity rituals are expensive, but the House arranges for them to be made available to senior Tremere, so that their wisdom and skill remain accessible to the House for an extended life. Many of these rituals are simply purchased from Corpus specialists in other Tribunals, but the House always ensures that at least one longevity specialist is close at hand, so that, in Order-wide emergencies, their ability to train apprentices as healers and extenders of life is preserved.

The Oppidum of the Scholomance

Travelers' tales from the Carpathian Mountains occasionally speak of a mysterious castle overlooking a high mountain pass, which only appears at the heart of a storm, and is gone whenever storm-tossed travelers seek refuge there. Locals nod sagely, and tell them they have glimpsed the fabled Scholomance.

The legend of the Devil's School is told throughout the Balkans and beyond; its name is whispered in the Byzantine corridors of power and even in the court of the Holy Roman Emperor. According to the legend, the doors of this school are open to only the most gifted individuals, who are taught the secrets of nature, the language of animals, and all magic spells by the Devil himself. Only ten students are admitted at a time, and at the end of the seven years they leave brimming with forbidden knowledge; all except for one, who the Devil claims for his own and who is never seen again. In reality, the Scholomance is run by an oppidum in Transylvania and is a school for recruiting agents, companions, and apprentices.

Given its reputation, it is perhaps unsurprising that the Church has taken an interest, and a papal legate has been ordered to investigate rumors of the Scholomance and its devilish practices. He has sought lodging among the Teutonic Order (see Chapter 5) while he prepares his case. Since the only people who know anything concrete about the school are either magi or those who have attended it, the legate has yet to discover anything other than hearsay.

Education in the Transylvanian Tribunal

Unlike Western Europe, the Transylvanian Tribunal does not have a preponderance of famous schools, other than the dubious reputation of the Scholomance. The schools of Mostre and Veszprém are the closest thing the region has to universities. Mostre's school is a cathedral school of the Bosnian Church, specializing in theology, cosmology, ethics, and medicine. The cathedral school in the Hungarian city of Veszprém teaches the Artes Liberales and Civil & Canon Law, as well as training diplomats.

The seats of the various bishoprics across the region usually have grammar schools attached, and there are numerous private tutors — often exiled Greeks — willing to take on pupils for an appropriate fee.

History

The Order had been aware for a while of a "ghostly castle" in the Carpathians, but it was not until 1095 that Jeremiah of Tremere discovered the secrets of its regio and gained entrance to the tower for the first time. Never one to pass up a useful resource, Coeris claimed the site thirty years later, and turned it into a mansio — a waypoint for Redcaps serving the north of the Tribunal. A few years later, it expanded its operations to the training of Redcaps, and soon after also became a training ground for mundanes of interest to House Tremere.

Within the last ten years or so, Simium (the current headmaster of the School) has been corresponding with the covenant of Polyaigos in the Theban Tribunal. Polyaigos has a similar remit to teach pupils prior to apprenticeship; they also train mundane agents, although they have a decidedly more military bent to their curriculum. There is talk of an exchange program between Polyaigos and the Scholomance and Laniena (see Chapter 3), but the centuries-old distrust and dislike between Thebes and Transylvania has prevented this thus far.

Setting and Description

The Scholomance resides in an isolated valley high in the Carpathian mountains south of Hermannstadt. The valley itself contains a small unnamed lake and little else other than a Magic aura of 3; on calm days the lake is mirror smooth, and reflects the entire sky in its surface. The tower inhabited by the oppidum resides entirely within a regio, and there is usually no sign of it, except during violent storms. When lightning rages about the crags of the valley, the Scholomance is visible, perched on a cliff's edge overlooking a rarely used pass. At such times the regio (which has a Magic aura of 5) lies open and anyone can walk in; but the regio is capricious, and the tower disappears as readily as it appears. Occasionally, the tower appears in other locations, mostly within the mountains of the Tribunal, but sometimes in more far-flung localities. On one memorable occasion the Scholomance opened its doors in the midst of a sandstorm in a mighty desert. The headmaster of the school (see later) can exert some control over the appearance of the tower in its valley, but its far wanderings appear to be random, albeit infrequent.

The Scholomance consists of a squat ivy-clad tower. The ground floor provides residential areas for the meager servants and the ten pupils, along with kitchens, workshops, and other essentials. There are also guest quarters for Redcaps, and a dining hall. Substantial cellars store all manner of food, tools, supplies for laboratories and scriptoria, and other consumables, assisted by enchantments that preserve perishable items indefinitely — the Scholomance receives a wagon-train of supplies just once a year, although Redcaps occasionally bring a pack of necessities or luxuries.

The second story consists of a lecture hall and several smaller galleries and scriptoria for independent study. There is also an extensive library of both mundane and esoteric studies, although there are no books on the Hermetic Arts or on the Order of Hermes.

The third and final story is reached by a single staircase that is always guarded, both physically and magically. It contains the office of the headmaster, and beyond that, sancta for four magi and guest quarters for another four. The latter do not have laboratories, but there is a single spacious laboratory that can be reserved for a season or more. There is also a second library containing the Hermetic texts of the oppidum. There are rumors that there is a second level to the regio known only to the headmaster, but this has never been confirmed or denied.

All corridors of the tower and some of the rooms have enchantments that garble the sound of any speech so that it cannot be understood. This discourages idle chatter between the pupils and prevents them from overhearing matters that they have no right to know. Most of the study rooms have similar enchantments that smear written text for anyone but the single person touching the text, preventing pupils from easily discovering what the others are studying. These methods are not foolproof, but add to the mystique of the school.

Storm-Chasers

The opening of the regio's borders during storms indicates a connection to the Storm Wizards (see Chapter 9: Hedge Traditions), and these hedge wizards have certainly shown an interest in the site. Twice in the past, these wizards have joined forces and tried to take the tower by force, using their powers to keep the tower from fleeing into its regio. Both times they have been successfully repulsed, but their motives have never been truly divined except for some notion of reclaiming something they have lost. Whether they mean the tower itself or something hidden within is unclear.

Culture and Traditions

The Scholomance is first and foremost a school. It accepts ten pupils at a time, all at once, and they remain for a total of seven years. These pupils have many different origins, but fall into one of three categories. First are the mundane scholars. The Scholomance is famed as a school of esoteric knowledge, and scholars from across Mythic Europe seek to be admitted, ignorant of its connection to the Order of Hermes. They have all managed to make the acquaintance of a former pupil of the school, and received an invitation from the school to attend. Of those that apply only the most favored will secure a place, and it is rumored that noblemen, bishops, and even kings have attended in their youth. The Scholomance usually picks applicants who are of interest to House Tremere, either as mundane agents, contacts, or companions. These lucky few seek to learn subjects that cannot be studied through more usual methods of education, subjects which are often considered to be occult knowledge or even called the "dark arts."

The second type of pupil is individuals who have grown up in the family of House Mercere and are destined to be Redcaps. The Scholomance is considered to be a superior training ground for House Mercere, and there is stiff competition for entry into the class. Finally, each class contains at least one Gifted individual, either a youth receiving a basic education prior to commencing an apprenticeship, or else an apprentice whose master decided that he needed a wider basis in non-Hermetic subjects. In the latter case, the master usually joins the oppidum for the duration of the class, so that the apprentice's Hermetic education may continue uninterrupted. Occasionally, the Gifted individual is called away to begin his apprenticeship, or because his master needs to relocate; in such situations the class receives a new pupil. These new pupils are normally from House Mercere, and have been following the Scholomance's curriculum since they missed their first chance to enter. They are behind the other pupils, and have a lot to prove.

Magic Lore, Faerie Lore, and even Infernal Lore feature heavily on the curriculum, as well as unusual languages such as Arabic and Hebrew, and the arts of astrology, alchemy, and pharmaceutics (see Art & Academe, Chapter 5). Pupils who have a natural aptitude for magic are taught the Arcane Abilities of Penetration and Finesse, and may even receive instruction in Supernatural Abilities, if they have the aptitude and the school currently has a master who can teach them. Even Organization Lore: Order of Hermes is taught, allowing House Tremere to control the information that mundanes know about them. Pupils are required to make copies of some of the texts that they study at the school, and to write at least one summa or three tractatus during their stay. The Scholomance has amassed an unparalleled collection of books on non-Hermetic magic, which they hope one day might provide assistance in the expansion of Hermetic magic.

It is not unknown for the members of a class to remain in contact through correspondence after the seven years are concluded; friendships forged at the school can last decades. Even Redcaps occasionally remain friends with their classmates, culturing them as contacts. Of course, the Scholomance provides rich grounds for recruiting companions with unusual skills. Contrary to the legend, a member of the class is not claimed by the Devil, but this rumor may have arisen from the apparent disappearance from mundane life of those who go on to complete a Hermetic apprenticeship.

Naturally it is not possible to keep the identity or the affiliations of those running the Scholomance a secret from its pupils, particularly with apprentices and future Redcaps in the class. In the past, headmasters have ruthlessly edited the memories of its mundane pupils with magic and provided false trails to throw them off the scent. However, the current policy is to culture friends for the Order of Hermes through the Scholomance, and therefore ensure that it is shown in the best of lights. While their affiliation is not advertised, it is not denied either.

Attending the Scholomance is a good way to explain Virtues such as Educated, Arcane Lore, Privileged Upbringing or (for apprentices) Skilled Parens.

The Masters of the School

The members of the oppidum take on duties of teaching at the school in return for access to the Scholomance's superior library. Their efforts are supplemented by non-Hermetic teachers who make up the school's companions. Magi are expected to spend one season a year teaching, and mature magi of House Tremere are often assigned to the oppidum in preparation for them taking an apprentice of their own. If a magus has his own apprentice at the school, he is required to fulfill his obligation to his apprentice in addition to teaching another pupil. Teaching is often performed one-on-one, but if the Scholomance is currently short of members, the master may be assigned a small study group. Magi are required to extend their Parma around those they teach to negate the social effects of The Gift.

Story Seed: The Specialist

A character who possesses a Supernatural Ability is asked to do a stint teaching that Ability at the Scholomance. A pupil with that Ability has come to the school for teaching, but he is a troubled child. It turns out that all of his former teachers, before he entered the Scholomance, suffered horrific deaths quite beyond the apparent capabilities of the child, but somehow linked to the Supernatural Ability he possesses. The characters must discover the source of these terrible events before becoming victims themselves.

Story Seed: A Snake in the Classroom

The characters are teaching at the Scholomance when one of the class gains access to the upper library by somehow defeating the guardians of the third story. A search of the uppermost story fails to locate him, although several important texts have been stolen, including a summa on the Parma Magica. Further investigation suggests that the pupil was actually a member of another magical tradition. It is now a race to find the thief before he is able to get the valuable book to his compatriots. If they fail, the future of the Scholomance may have to be re-evaluated.

Playing Gifted Children

An alternative saga for Ars Magica Fifth Edition could start the characters before their apprenticeship starts, or else sometime after the Opening of the Arts. Having them as members of the Scholomance's class gives an opportunity for characters of different backgrounds to meet and form friendships. The Apprentices sourcebook is a great help for a saga of this kind.

The Scholomance provides a good back-story for the reason a disparate group of player magi wish to set up home together. They originally all were members of the same class, and some of the other pupils could be their companions. The saga could even begin with a story or two set in the Scholomance itself. Life-long friendships and bitter rivalries are often forged in one's school days.

Story Seed: A Shadow on the Mind

A player magus begins to have bad dreams that are filled with a sense of foreboding, terrible claws dripping blood, and scenes from his time at the Scholomance. Through these dreams he comes to realize that the memories of a whole season of his time at the school are entirely missing. Questioning other members of his class (who may be a mixture of other player characters and storyguide characters), he discovers that all of them have the same gap in their memories. They may wish to return to the school to discover the source of this lacuna, but may not be prepared to discover why the masters thought it best to erase the minds of their pupils. This might eventually lead to a flash-back story with the players running younger versions of their magi.

Story Seed: A Friend in Need

This story works particularly well if the player character has risen to a position of trust or authority within the Tribunal. He is contacted by one of his classmates from his days in the Scholomance, whom he has not seen for years. It seems like a social visit at first, but eventually the friend asks the PC to provide an alibi for him. He has been accused of an Hermetic crime in a different Tribunal, and while he swears he is innocent, he needs to buy some time to prove it. By using a member of another Tribunal as a witness, he hopes to delay proceedings long enough to get the evidence he needs. Does the player character risk his good reputation for a friend?

Magi

The Scholomance has four Hermetic sancta, and enough room to accommodate four more magi as guest tutors. Currently there are only three resident magi, following the recent departure of one of its members for a distant Tribunal. The guest quarters are used by magi assigned as tutors to the oppidum; they must use the shared laboratory if they desire to perform lab work while resident here. The Scholomance prefer magi who have some interest in the liberal arts, natural philosophy, or occult lore, or who possess some Supernatural Ability.

Simium Arileins of House Bjornaer

Age: 78 (apparent age 58)
Personality Traits: Raven +3, Stern +3, Talkative –2
Privilege: Cives

Simium is the eldest magus of the school and its current headmaster. He is famed in the Order of Hermes as an historian and philosopher, and a prolific writer of entry-level texts on a number of subjects, the Hermetic Arts included. His books can be found as far away as the Stonehenge and Iberian Tribunals, although they are usually only suitable for young magi.

Having spent years at a lectern or bent over a table, Simium's back is bowed and he constantly blinks his beady eyes. He prefers to wear simple black robes, with a black skullcap. Simium's heartbeast is a raven that is larger than a man, thanks to the Mystery of the Inner Heartbeast (see The Mystery of the Epitome, Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults, page 28). His frequent trips into the mountains in this form have lead to local legends of a demon-bird that can carry off a fully grown adult.

Andrew Melanchthon of House Tremere

Age: 49 (apparent age 36)
Personality Traits: Dedicated +3, Hopeful +2, Naïve +1
Privilege: Cives

Melanchthon was forced to leave the Rhine Tribunal after a series of public disputes with a prominent member of House Bonisagus left him branded as both an empiricist and atheist, and unlikely to ever succeed on a political stage within that Tribunal's hierarchy. The accusation of atheism is unfair; like most Tremere, he is impious but not an atheist per se. His true crime was being vocal about his rejection of God as a loving father.

The Scholomance allows Melanchthon to pursue his own curriculum with the pupils of the school. He is specifically interested in the teaching of moral philosophy and rhetoric, drawing on non-standard texts deemed heretical or blasphemous by the establishment. He dreams of a time when his pupils enact his humanist agenda in the universities and courts of Mythic Europe.

Covenfolk

The Scholomance employs just three soldiers, relying on the remoteness of the tower to discourage visitors. Most of the grogs are servants; they grow and prepare food for the pupils and masters, and perform menial tasks like cleaning. The servants have orders to ignore all pupils as if they were deaf and mute. The punishments threatened for disobedience are sufficiently terrible that infractions are rare.

There are also several specialists who are each experts in a particular field, who act as tutors to the oppidum's pupils.

Sebastian

Sebastian is something of an enigma. He was the only inhabitant of the tower when Jeremiah of Tremere first entered it, and he is still alive having apparently not aged a day. Most of the magi assume he is some variety of magic kin rather than a human, but those few who are rude enough to probe him with magic have failed to discover anything, including a Might score. This has bred a certain paranoia that the headmaster tries to keep in check. Sebastian tells each headmaster his secret (or part of it, at least), and he is sufficiently trusted to help in the logistics of running the Scholomance. He clearly knows more about the tower and its regio than anyone else, and has assisted the headmaster in asserting control over it in troubled times. As well as being a caretaker, he also serves as a tutor, as he is remarkably knowledgeable on subjects of philosophy, the liberal arts, dead languages, and forgotten lore.

Sebastian has the appearance of a man in his forties with no distinguishing features. He is friendly yet keeps his secrets close to his chest, delighting in knowing more than others. This demeanor changes when he teaches, something he enjoys greatly.

A Haunt of Dragons

The Carpathian mountains are home to dragons (see "Dragons" in Chapter 8: Creatures) in sufficient numbers that they are merely an uncommon sight. The local dragon king is Aževastjepan, a seven-headed zmaj who enforces the Pax Draconis ruthlessly and has outlawed aždaje from his realm (with varying success). No magus has dealt directly with Aževastjepan and his lair is unknown even to other dragons, but they speak of him with awe. The similarity of the dragonking's name with that of the Scholomance's caretaker has been noticed by some magi. No one is known to have challenged Sebastian directly over this connection, but those noticing it tread more carefully in his presence.

Ludmilla

Ludmilla is a Romanian strigoica, or witch. In addition to being a Gifted member of the Folk Witch hedge tradition (Hedge Magic Revised Edition, Chapter 3), she has the Entrancement Ability and is suspected rightly, although she denies it — of being a Nightwalker (Hedge Magic Revised Edition, Chapter 6). Her role within the Scholomance is to tutor pupils in any Supernatural Abilities they have in common. Ludmilla is willing to help in return for free access to the oppidum's texts, but she also uses the school to identify recruits for the coven of witches that she leads. The Scholomance politely ignores these transgressions, since she has occasionally Initiated an unGifted agent of House Tremere trained by the Scholomance into one of the Supernatural Abilities of her tradition.

Ludmilla is a slim woman in her midfifties, with a look of fading beauty. Her hands are knotted with swollen knuckles, and she prefers to keep them hidden. When nightwalking, her phantasticum takes the form of a white moth with the face of a beautiful young girl.

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