Chapter Five: Leisure

The lives of the nobility are busy and their obligations many, yet like everybody else they pursue leisure activities. Having the wealth and opportunity to pursue expensive hobbies and interests, they do so, becoming dedicated to lavish entertainments and sports suitable to their standing. While many noble leisure activities are shared with all orders of society, hunting, hawking, and tournaments are all primarily noble sports and are therefore given more a detailed description in this chapter, as are the feasts that provide entertainment in noble households.

Children play as children always play, exploring their locality, fighting and brawling, and playing with wooden toys or a ball. Noble boys are, of course, expected to show leadership, to play with wooden swords and the ever-popular hobby horse, and to emulate their elders' martial prowess. Some children die and are injured in such games, and while infant mortality is high parents are still distraught and horrified by such tragedies, and fret over their infants' safety. Noble children play with the other household children indiscriminately. Popular children's games often involve imitating adult pursuits, playing at celebrating Mass, or holding mock scholarly debates. Some games, like hoodman's bluff (blind man's bluff), skipping, whipping tops, seesaws, chase, and walking on stilts, are almost entirely children's activities.

Pets

From childhood onwards the keeping of animals as pets is common. People love animals, and while most beasts kept are for food or as working animals, all classes of society, even monks and nuns, keep pets. These range from the ubiquitous dogs to animals such as caged songbirds, monkeys, squirrels, and magpies. The latter can mimic human voices and are often trained to speak parrot-fashion. Noble ladies favor tiny lap dogs, which clearly are not working animals, hence demonstrating their ability to spend on frivolities and thus their high status. As with all noble life, conspicuous consumption rather than frugality is to be admired.

Some Unusual Pets

Some medieval pets seem unusual to a modern reader, but were widely kept even by monks and nuns. Game statistics are given for some of these animals here. These animals may be trained by their owners. The animals' Qualities are described here in terms of the rules given in Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults, page 40 but necessary skill modifiers are summarized here for ease of reference. These statistics are for mundane versions of these animals, but may be used as templates for Magical Animal Companions.

Magpie

Characteristics: Cun 0, Per +2, Pre –2, Com +1, Str –8, Sta 0, Dex +3, Qik +5
Size: –4
Qualities: Crafty, Mimicry, Timid, Vocal Personality Traits: Mischievous +2
Combat:
Bite: Init +4, Attack +9, Defense +9, Damage –7
Dodge: Init +4, Attack n/a, Defense +9, Damage n/a
Soak: 0
Fatigue Levels: OK, 0, –1, –3, –5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties: –1 (1), –3 (2), –5 (3), Incapacitated (4), Dead (5+)
Abilities: Athletics 3 (flying), Awareness 4 (predators), Brawl 4 (dodge), Music 3 (mimicry), Stealth 4 (hiding), Survival 3 (foraging)

Monkey

Characteristics: Cun +2, Per 0, Pre –3, Com –3, Str –6, Sta 0, Dex +2, Qik +3
Size: –3
Qualities: Crafty, Defensive Fighter, Skilled Climber, Timid +3 to all climb rolls.
Personality Traits: Mischievous +2 Combat:
Bite: Init +3, Attack +9, Defense +8, Damage –5
Dodge: Init +3, Attack n/a, Defense +8, Damage n/a
Soak: 0
Fatigue Levels: OK, 0, –1, –3, –5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties: –1 (1–2), –3 (3–4), –5 (5–6), Incapacitated (7–8), Dead (9+)
Abilities: Athletics 3 (climbing), Awareness 4 (food), Brawl 4 (dodge), Stealth 4 (hiding), Survival 3 (foraging)

Squirrel

Characteristics: Cun +1, Per 0, Pre –3, Com –5, Str –12, Sta +1, Dex +3, Qik +5
Size: –7
Qualities: Crafty, Defensive Fighter, Skilled Climber, Timid +3 to all climb rolls.
Virtues & Flaws: Lightning Reflexes Personality Traits: Timid +3, Acquisitive +2, Inquisitive +1
Combat:
Dodge: Init +5, Attack n/a, Defense +10, Damage n/a
Soak: +1
Fatigue Levels: OK, 0, –1, –3, –5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties: –1 (1), –3 (2), –5 (3), Incapacitated (4), Dead (5+)
Abilities: Athletics 3 (climbing), Awareness 4 (food), Brawl 4 (dodge), Stealth 4 (hiding), Survival 3 (foraging)

Outdoor Pursuits

Many adults pass leisure time in a variety of sports. Ball games featuring a leather ball are popular, and some use bats or heavy gloves. Handball is played against any stone wall, with players taking turns to strike the ball so it ricochets back, and bittle-battle involves a stick with a head being used to strike a ball, sometimes to try to knock it in to a hole. There is also stoolball, in which ladies sitting on milking stools try to avoid being struck by a ball bowled or kicked by men. Shuttlecocks are used in racket games, which are very popular.

Throwing stones for distance or accuracy forms the basis of many games, and weightlifting and contests of strength are common. Mob football or camp-ball is played between entire villages. In the wintertime ice skating on bone skates is very popular in northern climes, though tragedies often occur when the ice breaks. Skaters propel themselves with two wooden poles, and "jousting" with these skate poles on a frozen river is a popular pursuit. Every so often — as with ice skating — the ice breaks and some poor unfortunate drowns, but this seems to do little to deter the practice. Just as common are ball games played on the ice, and the ever popular snowball fight.

Board Games

More cerebral games are also played. Chess is a common game, prized for its supposed ability to teach military tactics and strategy. There are many variants of the rules of chess, and a large number of players employ dice either to decide what pieces can be moved, or to decide how far certain pieces are moved. Merels, or nine man's morris, is widely played, as is fox and geese, a board game that also has links to one of the most popular board games of all, tafl. Tafl exists in many variants, and involves two unequally matched sets of pieces, with one as defender and one as attacker, played on a cross-shaped board of squares. The defender attempts, as in chess, to protect his king, and the attacker to take it. Only in the last hundred years has chess begun to supplant tafl as the favored noble strategy game, but both are still played extensively. Related is the Celtic fidchell or wood-sense, another game of protect-theking, in this case played on a seven-by-seven grid of squares. Vying with these games for popularity are the many variants of tables, which resemble backgammon. The academically inclined play rithmomachia, the philosopher's game, another popular board game of the period.

Board games are played by all classes, but skill at them is most important to a noble who thereby demonstrates his understanding of the arts of war, and may gain respect for his ability. Playing well is a social grace, and while the Carouse Ability may allow a win, Etiquette is needed as well to impress one's opponent in what is, after all, a pursuit of polite company.

Story Seed: Chess Partners

A great noble has two great passions: chess, and war, in that order. As a dynastic struggle threatens the kingdom, the noble's decision whether to rebel against the king or to remain loyal may well determine the future of the realm. This noble is well-known to spend much time playing chess against a scholar, one Octavian of Tremere. Is Octavian breaking the Code of Hermes by simply playing board games and teaching chess to the noble? Can anyone find an answer to the Coeris Gambit, the move he prides himself on, and break his influence over the noble before it is too late?

Gambling

Gambling is common in Mythic Europe. Though playing cards are as yet unknown, many dice games are popular. The rules for hazard can be found in Tales of Mythic Europe, The Ship of Desire. Raffle is even simpler, as three dice are thrown and the highest total, or the highest matching numbers on two or three dice, wins. In "pair with an ace," three dice are thrown in turn by each player, and the first to roll a matching pair and a one wins. These are the simplest dice games, with dozens more known, many with much more complex rules. It is simple — if six-sided dice are available — for Ars Magica players to play several authentic medieval games, and allow those with successful Legerdemain

tests or the Virtue Luck to change one die to the desired result! Even without dice at hand, Mythic Europeans played "heads or tails" (or, rather, "cross or piles," for the designs on the coins).

People gamble on almost anything to relieve boredom, from races between people or animals, to the weather, to the outcome of contests of skill. Games of chance are based upon the Ability Carouse, games of skill upon the Ability Concentration.

A Game of Chance?

Dice are commonly made from bones or wood, or even fired clay, and are by their manufacture not perfectly even. As a result, any given die may be subtly weighted so that even an honest player can observe the pattern and use Perception + Carouse Ability to gain an advantage over an unskilled player. The Virtue Luck also directly provides a bonus to die rolls, and the skill Legerdemain allows for the manipulation of the dice, and cheating. Many a brawl has broken out when someone, especially a stranger, seems to be winning rather more than his share, and allegations of cheating follow. Problems with dice manufacture are well understood, and crooked dice are warned against in many of the books on gaming of the period.

Good Drink, Song, and Dance

Where there is gambling there is drinking, and vice versa. A gallon of ale is purchased by a group of men in the village from one of the many ale-wives, and the men drink themselves inebriated while gambling, telling stories, and sharing their news. The noble has rather better alcohol in the form of wine and mead, but is excluded by his status from the rough company of the ale-wife's house. Instead, he expects to be entertained by his household staff playing music, singing, or telling stories. Alternately, a traveling jongleur might be hired to play. Many castle halls have a gallery where minstrels and players stand to perform for the assembled guests and host. Performance is covered in detail in Art & Academe, Chapter Eight.

With music and singing comes dancing. The most popular form of dance is the carol, a joyful form of energetic dance performed in a circle with linked hands, as a line dance, or in a processional of couples with linked hands. The leader, usually the musician, stands in the center and calls out actions that the dancers perform. Carols were occasionally condemned by the Church for inappropriate bodily contact, but are extremely popular, and dance remains a common occurrence at religious festivities and even in church services. Some carols had names, the ductia and rondeau being particular forms of carol common in France. Another joyous and noisy dance is the estampie, performed with hopping and stamping, to a genre of music of the same name performed by jongleurs in France. Another innovative dance originates from Naples: the salterello, a new dance that involves great leaping steps and jumps, and which is very much — like estampie — a courtly fashion. The estampie is the first-known purely instrumental dance, whereas with carols it is normal for the dancers and musicians to all sing along. Prowess in dancing is a source of considerable pride and favorable Reputations. While knowledge of the steps of any given court dance is based upon Etiquette (local folk dances fall under Area Lore), a successful performance depends upon the Ability Athletics.

Story Seed: The New Dance

A visiting noble lady introduces a new dance to the court, and causes a sensation. The dance involves leaping, pirouetting, and performing spirals in a chain of dancers, and is very hard to get right, but when it is finally achieved everyone present is consumed with mirth and great excitement. But later that night, a number of the dancers slip off to adulterous liaisons, while others act lewdly and inappropriately in polite company. The chaplain is horrified, and entertains the whispered claims of the guilty that the dance bewitched them. What is the secret of the dance, and is the lady involved in some intrigue against the household?

The Feast

Good food is always appreciated, and with many who can lay claim to a lord's hospitality, the feast was a frequent feature of noble life. Although peasants often hold communal feasts like picnics in the village to mark holidays and important occasions like marriages, with much drinking, dancing, and lewd behavior, the noble feast stands apart as a particularly special event.

While all meals in noble households are taken communally in the hall, feasts are special occasions when a celebration is put on to entertain guests or mark a holiday. But while they are special events, feasts are also very common, and a host who does not put on a feast for a guest will soon gain a Reputation for being inhospitable. It is also customary in many manors for the lord to provide a public feast on certain holidays or special occasions.

Preparing the Feast

The noble feast is prepared as any other meal is, in the kitchen and bakehouse, which are usually detached structures built outside the hall to lessen the ever-present risk of fire. The kitchen often possesses cellars for the purpose of storing hanging meat. Cooking is performed on spits over an open fire, the spit turned by a small boy shielded from the heat by a screen of wet rushes. A metal dripping tray is placed below the meat to catch the fats and juices, and it is not uncommon for several large fires to be kept each with its own spit laden with cooking game and poultry. Stone ovens are heated by fires lit within within them, and then, when the flames have burned down to embers, the ovens are swept clean and are used for baking, with bread, pies, and pastries placed inside and allowed to cook as the oven cools. Adjustable cranes (a curved pole or metal rod) support cauldrons dangling over fires, in which sauces, stews, and boiled foods are prepared, the temperature being adjusted by raising or lowering the cauldron. The kitchen staff carries wood-handled metal ripping forks called flesh hooks for tasting the stew and checking if the meat is properly cooked. Work in a kitchen is extremely hot. Smoke and fumes exit through a louver of latticed boards set into the roof. Once ready, the food is placed in bowls of red or gray earthenware that is finished with a greenish lead glaze and sometimes decorated with simple patterns and carried to the hall to be served. With some castles having a staff of up to three hundred servants, officials, and others with the customary right to take certain meals in the lord's hall, the kitchens are continuously busy and the cooks are extremely important members of the household.

Story Seed: Rats in the Kitchens

One fine morning, on the Feast of St. John, the whole household is in great excitement. The noble's liege has accepted an invitation to stay, and a huge feast of exquisite finery has been promised to impress the lord, as a very delicate situation has arisen and his full support is required. But soon after breakfast a shout goes up — every member of the kitchen staff has vanished, and a plague of rats has mysteriously appeared in the manor. Can the vermin be dealt with, and untrained characters manage to somehow cook such a huge meal in time? Plenty of womenfolk from the manor know how to cook, but none has the skills to produce a noble feast. Why has disaster fallen today, and where are the kitchen folk?

The Noble Diet

Meat and fish served at feasts has usually been preserved by smoking, pickling, or salting, though par-boiling removes much of the salt before cooking in the case of roasts. Spices can be extremely expensive, especially if imported over long distances, but are used for their flavoring. However, because of the great price, they are used in small quantities and so much of the food tastes quite bland. No root vegetables are eaten, and it is considered unhealthy to eat fruit raw. (Fruit is, however, often served stewed or in preserves.) Even so, the noble household can draw upon a varied range of foodstuffs, all prepared with seasonal berries, vegetables, and large quantities of bread, eggs, and dairy produce.

While cooks frequently mix sweet and savory flavors in the same dish, the general pattern of food service places sweet dishes last, as dessert. A simple meal as served in the hall might open with pork brawn, served with bread and butter, before proceeding to salt bacon served with peas pottage, and then stewed mutton, boiled chickens, and roast pork, all served with seasonal produce. The next course would consist of mortrewes, which is a thick-ground meat or fish soup, served alongside a meat pie of birds or rabbit, and perhaps some roast pork. Finally, sweet dessert dishes would be served, with baked apples and pears in pies, and cheese and spiced cakes washed down with mead.

Plainer food was served to the staff and less-important guests, but was still offered in large quantities. Other foods one might expect to grace a noble's table include game, be it boar or venison; doves from the cote; figs, olives, and oranges where available; small songbirds and larger fowl such as goose, duck, and peacock; and dishes of pickles or preserves served with bread. The finest, nearwhite wheat bread was served at the lord's table, with those lower down the social order eating inferior bread made from barley or rye.

Story Seed: Damsel's Tresses

A particularly rare and exotic spice is damsel's tresses, a golden plant of unknown origin. With an important feast due soon a knight has stumbled upon the source of the plant, growing like mistletoe on an ancient oak on the manor. Delighted, the noble has ordered it be harvested and brought back to adorn the main dish, honey-glazed pig, to render a delicious dish truly succulent. Who are the strange scholars who seem so upset by the harvesting, and why do they seem to believe eating the spice may have unfortunate effects?

Story Seed: The Silent Damsel

On a dark winter's night a mysterious lady arrives at the court with a very small escort and claims hospitality. Young, noble in demeanor, and beautiful, she refuses to speak. Her escort explains she is vowed to silence by a solemn oath until what troubles her is resolved, but will not say, or do not know, what troubles her. None will speak of her rank or dignity, and with several important guests present, the household is troubled by the question of where she should be seated given that her birth is unknown. And why does the elderly nurse, a woman with a deep knowledge of the family history that reaches back generations, seem so worried by the visitor?

Seating the Guests, and Good Manners

Within the hall itself, benches against either wall have trestles set up in front of them, so the staff sit with their backs to the walls.

Dancing and other entertainments take place in the central area, while at the top end of the hall a table is placed for the lord, his family, and important guests. The top table is headed by a chair where the lord himself sits, with guests sitting closer to or further from him in order of precedence. Most are seated on benches, but important guests are sometimes seated on wooden stools. Placing someone in too low a position can be seen as an insult, so Etiquette is used to decide the correct seating. The ladies eat with the men, and everyone on a table shares similar dishes, with the top table having the very best food. The top table is laid with a white tablecloth, with guests bringing their own eating knives and napkins. The food is served from bowls onto trenchers of flat, stale bread, which serve as plates, often with two guests to one trencher. Spoons may be used, and forks, though the latter are used mainly for serving rather than eating. A servant moves around with bowls of warm water and cloths for washing and drying hands throughout the meal, with fresh warm water brought for each course. Each table has its own dish of salt, with the finest salt on the top table, and coarser salt lower down. Salt degrades as guests dip their food in it, even though proper etiquette suggests they should avoid this practice and instead sprinkle salt onto their plates to season their food.

Etiquette is gaining in popularity, with good table manners being a mark of noble birth. Polite conversation, gracious remarks about the host, and restraint in eating are always appreciated, and gluttons and the crass are noted for their base behavior. At the lower tables, less emphasis is placed on manners, and good cheer and companionship as reflected in the Ability Carouse are more important than gracious manners governed by the Ability Etiquette.

Story Seed: Village Politics

Each Christmas time it is traditional for six leading tenants and six of the poorest tenants, plus the freemen of the manor, to gather in the lord's hall for a lavish feast, with as much good ale as they can drink. This year, however, resentment and village politics threaten to boil over. Several squabbles break out, becoming more and more heated as calls are made for justice and a brawl seems about to break out. Normally the lord would quickly deal with such foolishness, but earlier in the day, news arrived that a gang of outlaws had ransacked the church and made off with the altar plate, and most of the fighting men have set off with the lord in pursuit. Can the ladies of the court manage to achieve peace, when so many of the servants are related to the disputants, or will the feast end in a fight?

Time to Eat

Feasts are an exception to the usual meal pattern. In most noble households breakfast is taken soon after dawn, with dinner served at some point between the hours of nine and eleven in the morning, although in warm climes it comes later, towards noon. Supper is usually served at six in the evening. A feast generally takes place in the very late hours of the night, with noble households often sitting down long after the sun has set, and eating and drinking until the early hours. With multiple courses and entertainers performing throughout, the feast takes many hours to conclude, and it is not uncommon for guests to fall asleep or succumb to drink and be placed on the hall floor. A few feasts break this pattern, mainly those held on religious holidays like Christmas and Easter. These feasts are held in the daytime, often with a number of tenants and even villeins traditionally invited by right to dine in their lord's hall. Such largesse was not, however, without its price, for many holdings require a fee — a chicken, several eggs, or greater amounts in line with the peasants' wealth to be given for the lord's festivities, whether or not a reciprocal invitation to dine is extended. Likewise, lords are often required to pay annual fees in the form of food and animals to their lieges to support their own feasts, and certain feasts, such as those that mark a noble wedding, are also occasions for special taxation.

The Host

A feast can be a rowdy and exciting occasion, or a simple and dignified one, depending on the desires of the host. While guests may bring gifts, the host dictates the customs, and in some instances chooses a theme, for the feast; very popular at the moment in England are Arthurian-themed feasts.

The standard of hospitality offered is extremely important. To offer poor hospitality to a visiting liege or peer is to offer a grave insult, though most understand difficult circumstances. Feasting is known to be a considerable expense, and lieges are warned not to demand hospitality too often from their vassals, lest they bankrupt them with the costs of entertainment. On the other hand, the kings of England employ this requirement of hospitality as a method of restricting their vassals' power. By arriving and requesting hospitality, they can both impoverish a potentially rebellious baron (thereby diminishing his power), and also keep an eye on things in their subordinate's manor firsthand. But even though the costs can be large, feasts are joyful occasions, and a good host who puts on a lavish feast will soon gain a Reputation for hospitality and generosity, and for feasts that are exceptional in food, entertainment, and gifts, even a Gratitude point.

To keep a well-stocked larder and ensure a well-provisioned pantry requires considerable expenditure, as well as purchases from distant markets. The feast is an example of the conspicuous consumption that marks a noble and characterizes his lifestyle, and gifts from liege lords and grants of food are needed to allow such lavish entertaining. Fortunately, the produce of one of the great noble sports is directly consumed on the noble's table; that is, hunting does much to ensure a wellstocked larder for entertaining.

The Hunt

Hunting is an activity common to nobles across Mythic Europe. Whereas the Church is often opposed to tournaments, hunting is seen as a vigorous and manly exercise befitting a knight, and it is an expected leisure pursuit of all males of noble birth, also participated in by many ladies. It serves three purposes. First, it is considered a thrilling and enjoyable pursuit in its own right, occupying energies that might otherwise be spent on more sinful pursuits. Second, it is a martial pursuit, and those well trained in the tactics and skills needed for hunting can employ those skills in time of war, so it is a form of training for the knight's primary role. Finally, there is a purely pragmatic benefit, in that the prey is taken home for the larder, and hunting therefore serves an important role in the noble diet and in providing for the household.

The lower orders also engage in hunting, albeit outside of the chases, warrens, and forests where hunting rights are reserved. Game elsewhere may be freely taken by anyone with the ability to do so. (A chase or warren is a Minor Surroundings Boon; see Covenants, page 23.) In any area where hunting rights are not protected (as they will be increasingly in a century if your saga follows mundane history) peasants hunt and trap game with impunity. In some areas, like the Pyrenees or the forests of Germany, villages have specialist huntsmen who use bows, nets, and snares to catch prey and sell the game on the open market. However, within the Angevin domains and France it is customary for feudal grants of exclusive hunting rights to be made, and large parts of the countryside are designated as warrens or chases, places where hunting is forbidden to all but the noble (or clergyman) who holds the right. Given the economic importance of hunting, this is a minor source of income, and given the extremely high status attached to noble hunting, especially hunting with hounds, a grant of lands as a warren or chase is extremely prestigious, and fiercely protected with vicious gamekeepers and, against noble trespassers, lawsuits. Most protected of all were the forests, areas where hunting rights were held by the king. The designation of forests in England (where a third of the nation was designated as forest during the reign of King John) have become a major political issue. It is worth noting that a "forest" is not necessarily a wooded area, but rather a term designating a hunting reserve. The Royal Forest of Dartmoor in England, for example, is comprised of moorland.

Wherever there are forests there are also usually poachers. Just as noble hunting is a high-status occupation, the poacher who apes and deprives his betters of their rights — is a high-status criminal, and armed gangs of even clerical and noble poachers participate in this lucrative and illegal pastime, a significant insult to the landholder's prerogatives, and therefore fiercely punished whenever practical. Holding hunting rights is therefore not only a privilege and sign of status, it can also require expenditure and effort to protect the right and to maintain it.

The association of snares, nets, and traps with poaching and with commoners' hunting makes all nobles decry such practices as contemptible, and such pragmatic approaches to taking game are considered to be a sign of low birth, and crass in the extreme. For the nobility hunting is a sport, and is played by rules and strict procedures governed by a well-established hunting etiquette, even if the taking of game is ultimately for practical reasons, that is, for the kitchen. Noble hunters do accept supernatural aid as being within the "rules of the game," and frequently seek out charms, amulets, or prayers to bring success. Nobles are highly likely to seek such aid from any magician they are aware of in the vicinity. Spells that cause the prey to simply fall over dead, or otherwise fail to provide a challenging pursuit, are, however, regarded as a breach of etiquette as serious as the employment of nets or traps, and bring about nothing but embarrassment and hostility when employed, for they ruin the sport. Similarly, only the healthiest and finest specimens of prey are sought after, as there is no status or sport in hunting a beast unable to provide anything less than a serious challenge. Old, sick, or lame animals might be hunted by clergymen or ladies, but for anyone else to pursue them results in a poor Reputation and a loss of respect from one's peers.

Noble hunting falls into two main types, which are similar across Mythic Europe: hunting with hounds, and bow and stable hunting.

Varieties of Hunting Hounds

Hunting is a prestige sport that requires the upkeep of specialist kennels, trained dog handlers, and considerable expenditure. The breeding, care, and acquisition of hounds are a noble preoccupation and source of conversation, even if much of the work is conducted by paid professionals attached to the household of the noble.

The types of dogs found in noble households show considerable variation in breed and characteristics, but can be classified into main groups differentiated by the role for which they are bred. The main classes are lymers, running dogs, greyhounds, alaunts, mastiffs, harriers, and bird dogs. The first four are used when hunting with hounds, whereas harriers have a role in bow and stable hunting, and bird dogs are primarily employed in hawking.

Before considering how a hunt proceeds, one must be familiar with the role and characteristics of the hounds themselves. All hunting dogs are highly trained, requiring many seasons of work to teach them their specialist duties. This is the work of a commoner called a master of kennels, a skilled professional who holds a high-status position within the noble household, but there is no shame — and indeed there is some respect and status (represented by Reputation)—for the noble who participates directly in training his own pack of hounds.

Lymers, heavy-jowled beasts related to the modern bloodhound, are dogs bred for their sense of scent and ability to move quietly while tracking prey. From an early age they are taught to remain silent, and to suppress yaps or barks while following an almost imperceptible trail. Running dogs are the animals that actually pursue the prey, and work in pairs, trained to move together and fight as a team with other pairs when the prey is finally cornered, exhausted. Like lymers they require a good sense of smell to follow the trail of the prey, but they lack the lymers' stealth and restraint. Many running dogs resemble modern foxhounds and come in many colors. By far the best breed is the St. Hubert, from the Swiss monastery of that name where the abbot breeds these superb hounds, which, while slow, have unrivaled noses for prey. Greyhounds, the best examples of which hail from Scotland, are used to catch and bring down the prey, but are expensive and limited to Northern Europe. The Irish provide the shaggy-coated wolfhound, which performs a similar role. The greyhound has unparalleled speed, but a poor sense of scent, and must be unleashed within sight of the prey or it will soon lose its quarry. Alaunts (Great Danes) are powerful animals that are generally brought forward for the final kill, held on leashes till the last stages of the chase. They are fighting animals, fresh and ready for the dangerous task of holding the quarry until the huntsmen can administer the killing blow. The best are white with black patches, and because of their vicious temperaments they are frequently kept muzzled. Where greyhounds or wolfhounds are not available, the lower-status alaunt performs the same role. Mastiffs are shaggy, powerful dogs, slower than a greyhound but bred for viciousness and strength, used when facing dangerous prey such as boar or bear. Mastiffs can be formidable opponents even to a man. They are kept as guard dogs or to protect flocks, are common throughout society, and are sometimes employed in the hunt instead of more expensive greyhounds. Harriers are small dogs used to chase hares, and employed in bow and stable hunting. Finally, bird dogs are trained for hawking. The best come from Iberia, and they are sometimes called espagnols or spaniels. Exceptional kennels may also use pairs of leashed leopards, but this is very rare even in Mythic Europe and only the very wealthiest can afford this extravagance. There are, of course, many other breeds of medieval dogs, from the lady's lap dog to exotic animals from Scandinavia or the East, and a considerable trade exists, with animals being bred and imported from afar by ship. Any noble could be interested in acquiring a high-status or unusual hound for his kennels, and many regional varieties exist of each of these hounds.

Hunting Dogs

The hunting dog statistics presented here are based upon the rules in Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults, page 38, but can be used fully without that book.

Lymer

Characteristics: Cun 0, Per +3, Pre –3, Com 0, Str -4, Sta +1, Dex +2, Qik +2
Size: –2
Qualities: Domesticated, Keen Sense of Smell, Pursuit Predator, Timid, Vocal (silent)
+2 to all Hunt rolls.
Personality Traits: Obedient +3, Placid +1

Combat:

Bite: Init +2, Attack +9, Defense +7, Damage –3
Dodge: Init +2, Attack n/a, Defense +5, Damage n/a
Soak: +1
Fatigue Levels: OK, 0,–1, –1, –3, –5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties: –1 (1–3), –3 (4–6), –5 (7–9), Incapacitated (10–12), Dead (13+)
Abilities: Athletics 3 (running), Awareness 4 (deer), Brawl 3 (bite), Hunt 4 (deer), Stealth 4 (stalking)

Alaunt

Characteristics: Cun +1, Per +1, Pre –2, Com –4, Str +2, Sta +1, Dex 0, Qik 0
Size: –1
Confidence: 1 (3)
Virtues & Flaws: Ferocity (Boar)
Qualities: Aggressive, Domesticated, Grapple, Keen Sense of Smell, Pursuit Predator
+2 to all Hunt rolls.
Personality Traits: Aggressive +3
Combat:
Bite: Init +0, Attack +9, Defense +7, Damage +3
Dodge: Init +0, Attack n/a, Defense 0, Damage n/a
Grapple: Init +0, Attack +5, Defense +5, Damage special (see ArM5, page 174)
Soak: +1
Fatigue Levels: OK, 0,–1, –1, –3, –5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties: –1 (1–4), –3 (5–8), –5 (9–12), Incapacitated (13–16), Dead (17+)
Abilities: Athletics 3 (running), Awareness 3 (deer), Brawl 5 (bite), Hunt 4 (boar)

Greyhound

Characteristics: Cun 0, Per +1, Pre –2, Com –4, Str –4, Sta 0, Dex +1, Qik +5
Size: –2
Qualities: Domesticated, Fast Runner, Grappler, Keen Eyesight, Pursuit Predator
+3 to all running rolls, +3 to all sight rolls. Personality Traits: Persistent +3
Combat:
Bite: Init +5, Attack +8, Defense +10, Damage –3
Dodge: Init +5, Attack n/a, Defense +8, Damage n/a
Grapple: Init +5, Attack +4, Defense +8, Damage special (see ArM5**,** page 174) Soak: 0
Fatigue Levels: OK, 0,–1, –1, –3, –5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties: –1 (1–3), –3 (4–6), –5 (7–9), Incapacitated (10–12), Dead (13+)
Abilities: Athletics 3 (running), Awareness 3 (deer), Brawl 3 (bite), Hunt 4 (deer)

Running Dog

Characteristics: Cun 0, Per +3, Pre –2, Com –4, Str –4, Sta +1, Dex 0, Qik +4
Size: –2
Qualities: Domesticated, Fast Runner, Keen Sense of Smell, Pack Animal, Pursuit Predator, Tireless
+3 to all running rolls, +2 to all Hunt rolls.
The Pack leader has Com –3, Leadership 5.
Personality Traits: Cooperative +3, Loyal +3

Combat:

Bite: Init +4, Attack +7, Defense +9, Damage –3
Dodge: Init +4, Attack n/a, Defense +7, Damage n/a
Soak: +1
Fatigue Levels: OK, 0,–1, –1, –1, –3, –3, –5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties: –1 (1–3), –3 (4–6), –5 (7–9), Incapacitated (10–12), Dead (13+)
Abilities: Athletics 3 (running), Awareness 3 (deer), Brawl 3 (bite), Hunt 4 (deer)

Mastiff

Characteristics: Cun +1, Per +1, Pre –4, Com –4, Str +1, Sta +2, Dex +1, Qik +1
Size: –1
Confidence: 1 (3)
Virtues & Flaws: Ferocity (defending owner)
Qualities: Aggressive, Domesticated, Keen Sense of Smell, Large Teeth
+3 to all rolls using scent, +2 to all Hunt rolls.
Personality Traits: Loyal +3, Vicious +1 Combat:
Bite: Init +1, Attack +11, Defense +8, Damage +4
Dodge: Init +1, Attack n/a, Defense +6, Damage n/a
Soak: +1
Fatigue Levels: OK, 0,–1, –3, –5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties: –1 (1–4), –3 (5–8), –5 (9–12), Incapacitated (13–16), Dead (17+)
Abilities: Athletics 3 (running), Awareness 3 (intruders), Brawl 5 (bite)

Hounds and Aging

There is generally no need to keep track of the births and deaths of individual hounds. However, in the case of favorite dogs, trained animals, and other hounds important to the saga it may be desirable to keep track of their individual age and health. Medieval hounds can expect to live up to fourteen years, but some exceptional animals may live longer.

A dog begins to age at ten years, and must make an Aging roll every season thereafter except in the spring, rather than every year as with a human. Every four years the aging modifier increases by one. Kennels provide a positive Living Conditions modifier, representing appropriate care, veterinary medicine, and good food and exercise. This, however, requires a score in the Ability Profession Master of Kennels.

Taming Creatures

Taming creatures is a seasonal activity. A character undertaking it accumulates a number of points each season towards taming a given animal equal to Intelligence + Animal Handling (no die). The taming is complete when the accumulated total of points exceeds a total equal to 1 + (2 x the creature's Confidence Score). Points only accumulate between consecutive seasons, so if the character does something else for a season, accumulated point are lost. Points for taming animals cannot be transferred between trainers. The tamer must be able to interact daily with the creature throughout the season.
If the tamer can generate enough points to tame a creature in a single season he may split his point total among the taming of several creatures of the same species, but he cannot tame a number of additional creatures in excess of his Animal Handling Ability Score.
Once an animal is tamed characters with an Intelligence characteristic may command it. The animal can be commanded by any such character with the Animal Handling Ability, or by a character to whom the animal is loyal (as described in the next paragraph).
Once a creature is tamed it acquires the Personality Trait (Loyal +0), directed towards the character who tamed it. If the creature already had a Loyal Personality Trait before it was tamed, it does not gain a new Trait, but rather, the old Trait becomes focused towards the trainer and its level does not change. Sometimes, commanding an animal calls for a Loyalty test, and as this is a "social interaction," penalties for The Gift apply.
If he wishes, any character with the Animal Handling Ability may spend additional seasons with an already-tamed creature to improve or transfer the loyalty of that creature. Each additional season of training increases the Loyal Personality Trait by +1, to a maximum of +3. A character can only improve the loyalty of an animal that is loyal to him. Instead of increasing a creature's Loyal Personality Trait with a season of extra training, the trainer can choose to instead transfer the animal's loyalty to another character, who must also be present for the season. The trainer may even transfer the loyalty of the animal to himself if he was not the character who originally tamed the animal.
Any character with the Animal Handling Ability may train and therefore improve a tamed animal's Abilities using the standard training rules (see ArM5, page 164). As normal, the master must have a greater score in the Ability than the animal does.
Usually, an animal may only be trained in Abilities that it already has a score in, as other Abilities are beyond its capacity, but the troupe may relax this restriction on a case-by-case basis, for example, to allow a horse to be taught to swim. At the end of any season spent training an Ability that the animal does not already have a score in, make a Loyalty test for the animal against an Ease Factor of 6. If this Loyalty test fails, then the animal does not gain any training experience and the season is wasted. Loyalty tests are not required to improve existing Abilities.

Hunting with Hounds

Hunting with hounds is by far the most prestigious version of the sport, and is widely engaged in all across Mythic Europe, being from Iberia to Novgorod part of noble culture. While minor regional variations exist, the general format is known and accepted by anyone with a score in the Ability Etiquette.

The Quest

A formal hunt begins an hour or so before dawn when the first glimmer of light shows. The huntsmen set out in different directions on foot with leashed lymers to seek out suitable prey, in a process known as the quest. The huntsmen will have gathered the night before for a feast to discuss and determine the nature of the hunt's prey, and then stayed overnight as guests of the host. The huntsmens' job is to locate a suitable example of the chosen beast, in perfect condition, that will give good sport. Huntsmen each make Perception + (the lymer's or huntsman's Hunt Ability, whichever is lower) rolls against Ease Factor 9, to track an appropriate beast to its lair. After locating potentially suitable prey the huntsman does not approach, but instead tests Presence + Animal Handling against Ease Factor 9 to keep the lymer quiet. He then circles the prey collecting droppings and examining marks. The huntsman makes an Intelligence + Hunt roll against Ease Factor 9 to establish the quarry's age and condition, and whether the beast is suitable, and then returns swiftly to be back in time for the hunt breakfast.

Story Seed: Poachers

Recently, game has been diminishing in a noble's forest. Last night two gamekeepers were found dead, one apparently slain by a sword, the other's skull crushed by a club or mace. Clearly, this is not the work of peasant poachers, and a person of some wealth was involved. Frightened villagers claim to have heard the sound of hooves and armor, as if several men rode through the woods at night, and whispers have began to circulate of devils in the forest. Who is responsible, and can they be brought to justice?

The Assembly

When the huntsmen return the guests have risen, and as dawn breaks and breakfast is served at a meal called the assembly, the huntsmen make their respective cases for the suitability for the day's hunt of the prey they have found. The huntsmen pass around the table animal feces they have collected for the guests to inspect as they eat. These are examined with a test of Perception +Hunt against Ease Factor 12, with success telling a great deal about the age, health, and size of the animals. Based upon this the prey for the day's sport is selected. The successful huntsman is praised and rewarded, and the guests hurry outside to mount.

The Relay

After the assembly, the lymers are taken back out — their role is now to ensure that the quarry has not left the immediate vicinity, and to act as spotters for the hunt. Now the huntsmen (a role admirably performed by grogs) take the running dogs, alaunts, greyhounds, and mastiffs out to positions arranged in consultation between the noble hunters and the huntsmen. They are positioned in pairs (called couples) or two-couples (four dogs) on leashes in carefully selected positions based upon the predicted flight of the prey. Area Lore is essential to understand the lay of the land, and the Ability Hunting to predict the pursued animal's erratic path correctly. If positioned poorly, the main pack of running dogs may corner the prey some miles from the specialist hounds used in the last stages of the kill, which may lead to the exhausted dogs being injured or killed when the pursued animal is finally cornered. If the dogs are positioned well, fresh pairs are available all along the route the animal takes, to supplement the pack as tired dogs drop back, and the greyhounds and alaunts are positioned. The process of positioning these dogs is called the relay.

The Finding

Now the main pack of hounds and the noble hunters move off, riding to the quarry's position as identified by the lymers. This is a good chance for the nobles to gossip and swap stories of former hunts, display their manners and fine hunting knowledge.

The Chase

As the animal hears the hunters approach it flees, the hounds give cry, and the chase begins. The chase is a severe test of the hunters' Ride Ability, with good horsemanship vital. Some are thrown by obstacles, some simply fail to keep up and become lost, while others choose to fall back and accompany the ladies. The hounds are subject to the hunters' commands, and tests of the Animal Handling Ability are required to keep them on the trail, rather than pursuing other prey or becoming distracted. (An animal that leads the hunt astray from its desired prey is called a "rascal.") Unexpected hazards may befall the hunters, and the chase may lead them into adventure as they charge across the countryside in single-minded pursuit.

Each round of the chase represents one hour of pursuit, and requires a Dexterity + Ride stress roll against Ease Factor 6 to keep in sight of the hounds. Many hunters fall behind, sometimes intentionally. The hounds lose one level of fatigue per round unless they can succeed in a simple roll of Stamina + Athletics against Ease Factor 12, as does the prey. For every three rounds of hunting hunters must succeed in a simple Stamina + Ride roll against Ease Factor 9, or lose one long term fatigue level.

As well as accumulating long term fatigue, the hunters test to see whether they can catch the prey. Use the hounds' Perception + Hunt Ability + stress die (using the best total of any individual dog, if they differ) to generate their Pursuit Total. Match this against the prey's Dexterity +Athletics + Terrain Bonus + stress die, representing its Evasion Total. Remember to include all fatigue modifiers. Storyguides should also add events, encounters, and other challenges to each round to represent the terrain that the chase is occurring through.

Pursuit Total: Hound's Perception + hound's Hunt + stress die – lowest Fatigue penalty among the hounds vs.

Evasion Total: Prey's Dexterity + Athletics + Terrain Bonus (starts at 6) + stress die – Fatigue penalty

If the Evasion Total is higher, the prey has won that round; if the Pursuit Total is higher, the hounds have won. On a tie, neither side wins. If the prey wins four rounds (which need not be successive), it has escaped. Similarly, if darkness falls before the prey is cornered (very unlikely), the prey escapes. If the hounds win four rounds (which, again, need not be successive), they have cornered the prey, ready for the kill.

The Kill

The hunters dismount now, and close in on foot to kill the prey. The host normally makes the kill with a sword, though he may grant this honor to one of his guests if he wishes, and with dangerous creatures like bear or boar the hunters may all approach, or even call upon the huntsmen to assist with spears if the situation is severe enough. This is best resolved as a melee combat, but as the prey is typically fatigued it is normally over swiftly.

The Unmaking and Curee

Once the animal is slain it is butchered, which is known as the unmaking, and the dogs rewarded with offal and blood – the curee. There is a formal set of customs to this, represented by the Hunt Ability, and the hunters perform the task of skinning and cutting up the beast, while the huntsmen then carry it back to the larder. The hunters return home for the hunt feast, hopefully satisfied with a good day's sport, but if the animal was run to ground too quickly then the whole process may be continued with another quarry selected from the report at that morning's assembly.

Of course not all hunts are this formal. Knights and lesser nobles often participate in quite informal hunts. Nonetheless, whenever possible, formal hunting in preferred.

Bow and Stable Hunting

Bow and stable hunting is very different from hunting with hounds. In bow and stable hunting the noble hunters divide in to two groups, the archers, who dress in green hunting clothing for camouflage purposes, and the mounted huntsmen. An area of woodland is selected, preferably with either a natural boundary such as a river or cliff on either side, or with local villagers guarding the flanks with sticks and stones, to drive any animal that tries to flee past them back in to the woods. The archers on foot take up positions in a line across the bottom of the area, spaced several yards apart, and the hunters on horses — with a small group of beaters whose job is to run alongside them, making noise — do likewise at the top of the area, a mile or so away, completing the rectangle.

The hunters now ride slowly forward, flushing out the game. Every animal in the area runs for cover, and, finding no escape left or right, runs forward towards where the archers wait. As the game comes in sight the archers take careful aim and shoot. If they fire too quickly, their arrows have the potential to strike oncoming hunters, so they normally wait until the beasts are almost upon them, but if they wait too long and shoot as the animal passes through their line, they may well shoot their fellow archers (as, in fact, happens quite frequently).

Large amounts of game can be taken in this manner, but bow and stable hunting lacks the status of hunting with hounds, and is regarded as rather archaic and boorish in many areas. In parts of the Loch Leglean, Hibernian, Stonehenge, Iberian, Rhine, and Novgorod Tribunals it is, however, a perfectly socially acceptable form of hunting for nobles, as acceptable as hunting with hounds.

The Terrain Bonus

Assuming the hunted animal is native to the environment through which it is being pursued, it stands a good chance of escape. This is reflected in a Terrain Bonus of +6 added to the prey's Evasion Total. This can be reduced in two ways: through the relay, and through the actions of the hunters. These actions can turn the Terrain Bonus into a penalty in a sufficiently long hunt.

The Relay

Every round, any character who participated in establishing the relay must make a stress roll of Intelligence + Hunt + 6 against an Ease Factor equal to the Evasion Total. If at least one roll succeeds, that character chose to station fresh dogs in an appropriate place, and new hounds join the pack in the next round, reducing the hounds' Fatigue penalty to zero.
On a successful roll, the same character may make a stress roll of Intelligence + Area Lore against an Ease Factor equal to the Evasion Total. If this also succeeds, the prey's Terrain Bonus is reduced by 1 for the rest of the hunt. The planning of the relay can only reduce the Terrain Bonus by 1 point per round.

The Hunters

Every round, any hunter who is still with the pack may make a Perception + Area Lore stress roll against an Ease Factor equal to the prey's Evasion Total in the current round. If any of these rolls succeed, the Terrain Bonus is reduced by 1 for the rest of the hunt.

Story Seed: Errant Arrow

While out hunting in the forest, an arrow glances off a stag and kills a prominent noble. The knight who fired the arrow is a vassal of another noble with a long-time enmity for the dead man. Was it an accident, or a deliberate assassination? The knight has been captured attempting to flee the country, but protests his innocence before God. The only witnesses are the wounded stag and the silent trees. Magi can question either easily enough, but who will believe their testimony?
This story idea is taken directly from a historical incident, the death of William Rufus, King of England, in August 1100 after William Tyrell accidentally shot him.

Hunting Stories

While the process of playing out a hunt might not seem attractive, it has great dramatic potential, as the many medieval hunting tales show. A hunt ranges over large areas of wilderness filled with animals magical and mundane, and many hazards not found in the manor, village, or road. It involves characters from all levels of society who wander in small groups, often guided only by the distant cries of the hounds.

Any hunting story should involve many encounters and mysteries stumbled upon in the depths of the woods. The wilderness of Mythic Europe is a strange and dangerous place, and no hunt should ever feel safe or mundane, just as in medieval stories no hunt was ever prosaic. It is quite possible for the hunters to become the hunted if they stumble upon predators or enemies, and in one of the most common medieval folklore motifs this happens quite literally, when a magician or fairy transforms one of the hunters into a beast of prey by some enchantment. Hermetic magi who make their homes in the wilderness may be troubled by hunts that come to the covenant, especially if the quarry takes refuge therein, and given that Beasts of Virtue and magical animals are the highest aspirations of any hunter as quarry, there are many possibilities for stories arising from hunting.

The Prey

Certain rules apply when it comes to choosing the prey for a hunt. Many animals are only hunted in the season when they are at their healthiest, and hunting is avoided when they are weaker or engaged in mating, to ensure future stocks. One always seeks healthy animals, for to kill sick or poor specimens is contemptible. The very best animals are therefore Beasts of Virtue, exemplars of their kind that possess mythic powers and abilities. The order of preference for prey begins with powerful, unusual, and exotic magical animals (especially those that offer a great challenge and threaten the estate); continues to Beasts of Virtue; and ends with the very best specimens of mundane animals.

While one might not hunt a dragon with hounds, many magical animals do make for good prey. The unicorn is almost impossible to catch, and while luring one into the open with a virgin ploy is a well-known device, the subsequent pursuit rarely results in a kill. Those who do manage to hunt a unicorn certainly benefi t in terms of Reputation.

The hart is hunted in the spring and summer, and the stag's magnifi cent antlers make fi ne trophies. When the animal turns at bay it can be a dangerous adversary, and it is widely recognized as a fi ne animal to hunt — indeed it is the object of most hunts. (Statistics can be found in The Book of Mundane Beasts, Realms of Power: Magic, pages 140–144). The fallow deer is rare, and the roe too small to be considered worthy of much attention. Some hunters have traveled to Scandinavia to pursue the fabled reindeer, which is said to give good sport.

For those who seek danger the malicious and hard-to-slay boar makes excellent prey. The season runs from midsummer through the autumn, when the hart is not available, and while many dogs and even the hunter's own life can be lost hunting this dangerous game, success makes for good eating. A boar spear is a special spear with a bar across the haft, for even impaled and dying the ferocious boar often makes a fi nal attempt to gore the hunter with its tusks.

Perhaps even more dangerous than the boar is the bear. Bears may be hunted in summer or autumn, or, if they can be found and fl ushed out of hibernation, even in winter, with only spring as a closed season, while cubs are licked into shape. Bears have great stamina, and bear hunts may last for days and cover a dozen or more miles of terrain before the fi nal terrible battle when the hunters. This fi nal stage often takes place without the exhausted hounds, with all the hunters assaulting the bear together, rather than the host making the kill alone, as is usual for other creatures.

Far safer, especially for those who do not wish to stray far, is the hare. A fi ne runner, it gives the dogs a good chase, but is better suited for pursuit by sighthounds like greyhounds than by running dogs who hunt by scent. The hare is frequently found in the peasants' fi elds in spring and summer, and crops are sometimes trampled, making this chase unpopular with the farmers.

Wolves are diffi cult prey, as they must somehow be separated from the pack. Killing them holds little honor (though they give a good chase), but is instead a necessity, for wolves are ferocious predators, and a threat to man and beast in Mythic Europe. Wolves are feared and hated, and many a huntsman has become the hunted when, separated from his fellows, he stumbles upon a wolf pack that pursues and devours him and his tired horse.

The fox is known for its cunning. While less a threat than the wolf, the fox gives good sport, often outwitting the dogs by its guile and deceitful tricks. Hunting foxes is perfectly acceptable, but lacks the prestige of hunting the hart or boar. Otters are regarded with similar disdain — they are seen as the riverine equivalent of foxes, predators that need to be killed. The best time to hunt them is summer or autumn when the water levels are low.

Horses

A huntsman requires excellent hounds, but fine horses are essential to all aspects of noble life. The use of horses goes far beyond hunting and leisure; travel, war, and even some farm work is also often best served by a fine horse. Medieval horses are not differentiated from one another by breed, but rather by their suitability for certain roles. (A war horse is not suited for lengthy journeys, for example, and a farm horse is unsuitable for war or travel.) Horses are distinguished by pedigree (usually given orally but sometimes recorded in writing), by coloration, and by country of origin, but at the most basic level a horse is described by a name designating its role.

Horses, even farm horses, are expensive to possess, and give the owner status. Theft of a horse is often a capital crime, and horse markets have developed a shady reputation across most of Mythic Europe. Horse dealers (or "horse coursers" as they are called in England) seem to attract a uniformly bad reputation as unscrupulous and dishonest at best, and outright criminals at worst, from Novgorod to France; only in Iberia and the Levant is the profession widely respected and reputable, no matter how desirable the animals they sell and how skilled they are in assessing horseflesh.

While some commoners can afford to employ the more-efficient horse to replace the traditional yoked oxen, the ox remains the primary agricultural working animal in most parts of Mythic Europe. The horse collar allows a horse to outperform an ox, and teams of working horses known as draught horses are an increasingly common sight on the land. Working horses are invariably mares, as are those employed for travel and to pull carts and wagons, while many warhorses are stallions prized for their aggression and temperament. The exception is in Muslim lands, particularly Iberia and the Levant, where mares are employed commonly as warhorses for their ability to be trained. Either gender of horse can be, if properly trained, adapted to any given role, but training a horse is a specialist and highly valued skill.

The Types of Horses

Horses are, as noted, distinguished by their role rather than their breed. Horse templates typical of each type are provided that the storyguide can modify to individualize horses available at market or presented as gifts. Individualizing a horse can be as simple as adding a new Personality trait, adding a new Quality (see Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults, page 40), altering the characteristics to reflect unusual speed or intelligence, or — for faerie or magical horses (though Divine horses and Infernal horses are also known) — adding Might and Magical Qualities using the process described in Realms of Power: Magic or Realms of Power: Faerie. No two horses should ever be identical, and each should have a distinct personality and quirks, whether a proclivity to eat hedges or being frightened of rabbits.

Horses

The following templates describe the types of horse most commonly found in Mythic Europe.

Noble Warhorse (Destrier)

Characteristics: Cun –2, Per +1, Pre +1, Com –4, Str +6, Sta +3, Dex +1, Qik 0
Size: +3
Confidence Score: 1 (3)
Virtues & Flaws: Ferocity (when ridden in battle), Improved Characteristics x 2, Long-Winded, Proud (minor)
Qualities: Domesticated, Fast Runner, Herd Animal, Imposing Appearance, Tireless
Personality Traits: Proud +3, Loyal +2, Brave +1
Soak: +3
Fatigue Levels: OK, 0/0, –1/–1, –3, –5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties: –1 (1–8), –3 (9–16), –5 (17–24), Incapacitated (25–32), Dead (33+)
Abilities: Athletics 5 (in battle), Awareness 2 (bad footing), Brawl 3 (hooves)
Combat:
Hooves: Init +2, Attack +7, Defense +7, Damage +7
Destriers are the highest-status horses in Mythic Europe. Often from Spain, these fine animals may stand fifteen hands (sixty inches) high, and are superb warhorses. Extremely rare, they can command prices from 50 to 140 pounds, and for an exceptional horse far more. A disproportionate number are aligned with the Magic, Faerie, Divine, or Infernal realm in some way, and these often possess Might and powers appropriate to that realm. The best tournament horses are destriers. Only major nobility and the extremely wealthy are ever likely to possess such a fine animal, unless found through a story, granted as a gift, or won as a prize in a tournament. Owning such a beast is worth at least a single experience point in Reputation: Prudhomme.

Warhorse (Courser or Rouncey)

Characteristics: Cun –2, Per 0, Pre 0, Com –4, Str +4, Sta +3, Dex +1, Qik 0
Size: +2
Confidence Score 1 (3)
Virtues & Flaws: Ferocity (when ridden in battle), Improved Characteristics, Long-Winded, Proud (minor)
Qualities: Domesticated, Fast Runner, Herd Animal, Imposing Appearance, Tireless
Personality Traits: Proud +3, Loyal +2, Brave +1
Soak: +3
Fatigue Levels: OK, 0/0, –1/–1, –3, –5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties: –1 (1–7), –3 (8–14), –5 (15–21), Incapacitated (22–28), Dead (29+)
Abilities: Athletics 5 (in battle), Awareness 2 (bad footing), Brawl 3 (hooves)
Combat:
Hooves: Init +2, Attack +7, Defense +7, Damage +5
Coursers are the most common combat-trained warhorses of the era. Like most horses in Mythic Europe, they are between fourteen and fifteen hands in height. A courser usually costs around 10 to 20 pounds, varying based on the horse's quality, with 16 pounds being the average price for most sagas (see Covenants, page 71). Coursers are completed unsuited as pack animals and workhorses, and are temperamentally unsuited as general riding horses for travel. A rouncey, often favored by squires, can be used as a general utility horse, but retains the combat training of the courser; such horses lack Ferocity and Confidence, and gain the Flaw Proud. A rouncey costs between five and ten pounds, though some fine specimens cost many times that sum. A commoner or squire who rides a particularly fine rouncey may attract a Reputation as having ideas above his station, and the scorn of his betters.

Riding Horse (Palfrey or Jennet)

Characteristics: Cun –2, Per –1, Pre 0, Com –4, Str +4, Sta +3, Dex +1, Qik +1
Size: +2
Virtues & Flaws: Improved Characteristics, Long-Winded
Qualities: Domesticated, Fast Runner, Herd Animal, Imposing Appearance, Tireless
Personality Traits: Skittish +3, Brave –2 (Jennet: Docile +1, Brave –3)
Soak: +3
Fatigue Levels: OK, 0/0, –1/–1, –3, –5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties: –1 (1–7), –3 (8–14), –5 (15–21), Incapacitated (22–28), Dead (29+)
Abilities: Athletics 5 (distance riding), Awareness 2 (escape routes), Brawl 1 (hooves)
Combat:
Hooves: Init +3, Attack +5, Defense +6, Damage +5
Palfreys are the standard riding horse favored for general usage, capable of being ridden in a hunt, being controlled in combat by anyone with a Ride Ability of 3 or more, and suitable for long-distance travel, being able to make thirty miles a day or more on good roads if ridden hard. Most palfreys are mares rather than stallions. They lack the aggression of coursers. The palfrey, if ridden by a lady, is often referred to as a jennet, which is always a mare. It is extremely uncommon for ladies to ride side-saddle in Mythic Europe, though a few might if their gowns are particularly unsuited to riding and the need is urgent. (Riding side-saddle is not a feature of etiquette in this period, simply something forced upon ladies in some circumstances. Riding astride a horse is entirely normal and provokes no unfavorable comment.) A palfrey or jennet stands a little over fourteen hands, and can be purchased for around two pounds.

Draught Horse (Hackney)

Characteristics: Cun –3, Per –1, Pre 0, Com –4, Str +6, Sta +4, Dex +1, Qik –2
Size: +3
Virtues & Flaws: Long-Winded, Noncombatant
Qualities: Domesticated, Herd Animal, Imposing Appearance, Tireless
Personality Traits: Placid +2, Stubborn +1, Brave –2
Fatigue Levels: OK, 0/0, –1/–1, –3, –5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties: –1 (1–8), –3 (9–16), –5 (17–24), Incapacitated (25–32), Dead (33+)
Abilities: Athletics 3 (stamina), Awareness 2 (commands), Brawl 1 (hooves)
The hackney is a large horse of up to sixteen hands used for general riding, and as a workhorse. With the new horse collar, and teamed either one in front of the other or in parallel pairs, they are half again as efficient as a similar number of oxen. Hackneys are slow and ponderous beasts not suited for combat or hunting, but they can be ridden for long journeys, or by those not bothered about appearances or speed. Primarily they are used for farm work. A pair of hackneys can be bought for as little as a pound, but no noble would ever be seen riding such a beast. A hackney with a horse collar can easily pull a heavily laden cart, which might otherwise require two oxen.

Working Pony (Fell or Icelandic)

Characteristics: Cun –2, Per +1, Pre 0, Com –4, Str +2, Sta +3, Dex +2, Qik 0
Size: +1
Virtues & Flaws: Improved Characteristics, Long-Winded, Perfect Balance, Noncombatant
Qualities: Domesticated, Herd Animal, Imposing Appearance, Tireless
Personality Traits: Brave+2, Resilient +1 Soak: +3
Fatigue Levels: OK, 0/0, –1/–1, –3, –5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties: –1 (1–6), –3 (7–12), –5 (13–18), Incapacitated (19–24), Dead (25+)
Abilities: Awareness 2 (footing)
This sturdy pony is suited for use on the roughest terrain. These statistics may be used to represent animals from the north of England and Scotland, or Iceland, and such beasts are greatly prized for their ability to cross mountain trails and treacherous moors. A working pony costs about one pound in Northern Europe, but far more in southern regions. Superb pack animals, sure footed and sturdy, they are used to carry supplies over long distances where no cart can go, and across country. The Perfect Balance Virtue represents their abilities on treacherous mountain paths.

Even more than with other horses, there is no such thing as a standard destrier. The term denotes not so much a type of horse as a horse of exceptional quality far beyond the norm. Many destriers are Horses of Virtue, and others have powers aligned with one of the realms and possess appropriate Might, but no two destriers are the same.

As well as being differentiated by type, horses are differentiated by country of origin. Barbs from North Africa, the Muslim regions of Iberia, or the Levant, make fine coursers and destriers, as do Spanish horses, with perhaps the majority of destriers being stallions from Iberia, and in particular Andalusia. Northern Britain produces particularly fine fell ponies, with Iceland being the source of the very best beasts of this type. Hungary is known for the quality of its riding horses, such as palfreys and jennets, with fine rounceys being available in England, Ireland, France, and Scandinavia. The Low Countries and the Novgorod Tribunal produce good draught horses, with English and German breeds also being notable.

The Care of Horses

Horses are extremely important and valuable, so their care can be come an important consideration in the saga.

Horses and Aging

If the stables rules are being used (see Running an Establishment, later) there is no need to keep track of the births and deaths of individual horses, though a shoddy stable loses one horse every three years to bad conditions, requiring replacement.. However, in the case of destriers, favorite warhorses, trained animals, and other horses important to the saga it may be desirable to keep track of individual animals' ages and health. Medieval horses can expect to live up to twenty years, but some exceptional animals may live into their fifties. A horse begins to age at 14 years, and must make an aging roll every season thereafter, rather than every year as humans do. Every five years a horse's aging modifier increases by one.

A Note on Size and Capacity

Horses are measured in hands, abbreviated "hh." A hand is four inches, or approximately ten centimeters, and the horse is measured from the ground to the top of the withers, which is the highest point on a horse's back. In modern terms a horse up to 14.2 hands is classified as a pony, but medieval horses are smaller. A modern thoroughbred averages about sixteen hands in comparison, so is eight inches higher than the horses of Mythic Europe. A horse can carry unencumbered about 30% of its weight in pounds, so a 14 hh horse weighing perhaps 1,200 pounds can carry 400 pounds of goods or riders without being encumbered.

Stables provide a positive Living Conditions modifier, representing appropriate care, veterinary medicine, and good food and exercise. This, however, requires a score in the Ability Profession Marshal, as described in Running an Establishment.

Hawking

While hunting is a prestigious activity, there is one other form of sport that is perhaps even more prestigious. Hawking, or falconry, is a truly noble pursuit, with almost endless opportunities to spend money on training and equipping birds of prey that are used to hunt either small game like rabbits, or other birds.

The birds employed are divided into two classes, hawks and falcons, though the terms "hawking" and "falconry" are used as synonyms irrespective of the actual bird employed. Training a bird of prey to take orders is an extremely specialized skill subsumed under the Ability Animal Handling, and wealthy nobles who pursue hawking employ at least one falconer to train their birds, and maintain a building for the falconer and the birds. The upkeep of hawks requires perches, a good water supply, and a specialist diet, all of which increase the expense. A dove cote is often also maintained to feed the hawks as well as supplement the household diet. It is worth noting, however, that dove cotes are often a cause of contention between a lord and his tenants, as the tenants usually believe that the lord's birds eat their grain and seed from the fields. Even after all this expense, even the best-trained hawks and falcons sometimes stray, and the loss of a rare bird causes much sorrow — not to mention expense — to its owner. Anyone finding a hawk or falcon can expect a substantial reward for returning it, and many areas have laws making any such stray bird the property of the lord upon whose land it is found.

Hawking birds often live within a chamber in the falconer's house, where they are secured to their perches by leather or silk cords called jesses. The far end is placed on a ring called a terret, which is slipped over the perch, or can be worn over the finger on the creep, the great leather gloves worn by the hawker to protect his hands from the birds' talons when they are taken out to hunt. A new fashion originating at the court of Sicily but becoming increasingly widespread involves the hawk being kept calm with a hood, often elaborately embroidered or bejeweled.

Hunting birds are first trained by professional falconers, and then afterward trained to be loyal to their owners (see the rules for animal training earlier for information about how this transfer of loyalty is effected).

When hunting, the hawker rides out with a party, and beaters or sometimes bird dogs are used to flush the game out. Prey varies from rabbit and hare on the ground to birds in flight, with experienced hawkers able to get two birds to work together to bring down such large birds as ducks and cranes, though pigeons are more normal prey.

The mechanics of hunting require a Presence + Animal Handling roll from the hawker, as he releases the hawk and issues commands. The result is determined on the table below. Penalties for The Gift apply as normal.

Roll	Result
0 or less	Make a Loyalty check for the animal. On a failure, the animal leaves, never to be seen again.
1–3	The hawk flies off to a nearby tree and looks at the hawker quizzically.
4–6	The hawk disregards its intended target and merely circles before returning.
7–9	The hawk conducts a single attack against its prey, which may result in a kill.
10–12	The hawk attacks with a +1 bonus to its attack roll.
13–15	The hawk attacks with a +2 bonus to its attack roll.
16–20	The hawk attacks with a +3 bonus to its attack roll.
21+	The hawk attacks with a +5 bonus to both its attack and initiative rolls, and continues launching additional attacks after the first.

While certain birds are ascribed by tradition and etiquette to certain social classes, in practice birds are employed as available and as required for specific roles, irrespective of social rank. Hawking is largely the preserve of the noble classes (irrespective of gender), though some clergymen do engage in it.

Birds and Aging

If the mews rules (see Running an Establishment, later) are being used it is not necessary to keep track of the births and deaths of individual hawks, though a shoddy mews will kill all of its birds quickly, losing twenty percent of them every season. However, in the case of trained birds and other hawks important to the saga it may be desirable to keep track of particular birds' ages and health. Medieval hawks and falcons can expect to live up to 15 years, but some exceptional animals may live in to their twenties. A hawk or falcon begins to age at ten years, and must make an Aging roll every season thereafter, rather than every year as with a human, with an additional Aging roll in the winter during the molt when the bird's plumage changes. Sparrowhawks must make an Aging roll every winter from their very first year owing to these birds' extreme fragility. Every four years after age ten the aging modifier increases by 1.

Some Typical Prey Animals

Type Size Str Sta Dex Qik Init Atk Def Dam Soak

Partridge –5 –10 0 +3 +6 +6 +5 +9 –9 0

Hare –6 –6 +1 +3 +4 +4 n/a +4 n/a +1

Duck –3 –6 0 +3 +4 +4 +5 +7 –5 0

Goose –2 –4 +1 +3 +3 +3 +5 +6 –3 +1

Pheasant –2 –4 0 +3 +4 +4 n/a +7 n/a 0

Heron –2 –4 –1 +4 +4 +2 +3 +7 –5 –1

Crane –1 –2 0 +3 +3 +2 +5 +5 –1 0

Mews provide a positive Living Conditions modifier, representing appropriate care, veterinary medicine, and good food and exercise. This, however, requires a score in the Ability Profession Falconer, as described in Running an Establishment.

Running an Establishment

Nobles often wish to ensure they have available the finest hounds, horses, and hawks for their pleasure. The following rules provide a simple system for maintaining kennels, stables, and mews, which are interchangeably referred to as "establishments" here.

Story Seed: The Vanishing Hawk

A contest of falconry has been declared, with a great prize to be awarded by the king. One lady who wishes to enter has recently lost her prize hawk, which simply vanished in mid-air over a sunny meadow while in plain sight of the hawking party. She is distraught, and offers a great prize to any who can solve the mystery and return the magnificent bird to her in time for the contest.

The quality of kennels, stables, or mews describe their capacity, bonus to the housed animals' Living Conditions modifier, and the prestige they confer upon their owner. All nobles are assumed to own standard stables at no cost, as part of their estate. Mews and kennels must be built if desired. Note that a noble's (and his visitors') horses, hackneys, ponies, mules, and farm horses generally do not require more than minimal stabling — a paddock and a stable for wintering — so do not apply these rules, which are intended for more valuable and delicate war and riding horses, to such common beasts.

Establishments are defined by a quality, such as "shoddy" or "superior." Each quality corresponds to a rank of noble to which its ownership is typically appropriate.

A given establishment's quality corresponds to a capacity of active animals it may support. The actual number of animals present may include up to one-third again the capacity in immature beasts and breeding stock.

Each establishment has a maintenance cost for a year listed, but a stable of appropriate level to its owner's rank can be maintained at no cost. (Thus, a knight running a standard stable does not incur a maintenance cost, nor an earl who keeps an excellent stable. However, if a covenant of Hermetic magi wished to own anything better than a standard stable, or a knight wished to maintain a superior stable, the cost would be incurred as given.) Kennels and mews always require the maintenance cost to be paid.

Hawks and Falcons

Rather than provide characteristics for each type of hawk and falcon, the gyrfalcon template can be modified to represent better quality birds and different breeds as appropriate and as described below. The Size characteristic reflects a female bird, the gender primarily used in hawking. Many male birds are a Size smaller, usually weighing one-half to two-thirds the body weight of a female.

Gyrfalcon (Falco)

Characteristics: Cun –1, Per +3, Pre –1, Com -2, Str –6, Sta –2, Dex +1, Qik +6
Size: –3
Qualities: Accomplished Flier, Fast Flier, Keen Eyesight, Pursuit Predator, Extra Natural Weapons
Confidence Score: 1 (3)
Virtues and Flaws: Ferocity (swooping attack), Keen Vision, Fragile Constitution
Personality Traits: Fierce +3
Combat:
Talons: Init +8*, Attack +6, Defense +12, Damage –4
Beak: Init +9*, Attack +6, Defense +9, Damage –5
\* Includes +3 bonus for Fast Flyer Quality.
Soak: –2
Fatigue levels: OK, 0/0, –1, –3, –5, Unc.
Wound Penalties: –1 (1–2), –3 (3–4), –5 (5–6), Incapacitated (7–8), Dead (9+)
Abilities: Athletics 5 (swift flight), Awareness 4 (spotting prey), Brawl 2 (talons), Hunt 4 (game birds), Survival 3 (cold climates)
Natural Weapons: The unmodified weapon statistics for a falcon’s talons are Init –1, Attack +2, Defense +3, Damage +2. The statistics for its beak are Init 0, Attack +3, Defense +1, Damage +1.
Gyrfalcon: These statistics are for a gyrfalcon, the largest and most prized of falcons. Its wingspan can exceed four feet. It has a short, hooked beak and dark eyes. Its plumage may be white, grey, or dark brown and has a banded pattern. The gyrfalcon is among the swiftest of birds and hunts on the wing, overtaking its prey in flight. Nobles use falcons to hunt game birds such as partridge. In the wild, the gyrfalcon can kill prey as large as a goose, and usually hunts birds and small rodents. It lives in cold northern lands including Scandinavia, Iceland, and Russia. An untrained bird costs about three to four pounds, and they are greatly prized.
Peregrine Falcon: Smaller than the gyrfalcon, with Size –4, the peregrine attacks from flight, hovering overhead and then falling like a stone to grab its prey in outstretched talons in a swooping attack. The peregrine is an Ambush Predator, not a Pursuit Predator, and has Str –8, Qik +7, and Talons with Init +7, Attack +6, Defense +14, Damage –6. It has Stealth 3 (ambush prey) but only Athletics 3 (climbing flight). If it makes a stealthy attack on unsuspecting prey it automatically gains +3 to its attack total and wins initiative. A peregrine falcon costs around one pound untrained.
Goshawk: The female goshawk is the same size as a gyrfalcon, but the goshawk is flown from the fist, with a distinctive graceful flight style. Remove the Quality Fast Flyer and add Aggressive for a +3 bonus to Attack. Despite this aggression, goshawks do not attack prey larger than Size –2 unless specifically trained to hunt that particular type of prey. An untrained goshawk can be purchased for a pound.
Merlin: A small but very fast falcon. Modify the gyrfalcon statistics to Size –5, Str –10, Qik +8, and Beak Init +11*, Attack +6, Defense +11, Damage –9. Merlins are useful for hunting small prey up to partridge size (–6). Four untrained birds can be purchased for a pound.
Lanner: Found mainly in North Africa and Mediterranean climes, the lanner is often used to teach falconry. A Size –4 falcon, it lacks the Ferocity virtue and Confidence Score and is therefore easy to train. Lanners are, uniquely, usually taught to hunt in pairs. The lanner has Str –8, Qik +7, and Talons with Init +7, Attack +6, Defense +14, Damage –6, but a pair can be taught to fight as a trained group, and a lanner has Leadership 1. A trained pair therefore attacks with Str –8, Qik +7, and Talons with Init +7, Attack +12, Defense +14, Damage –6. A pair of untrained birds can be purchased for a pound.
Sparrowhawk: The most commonly found hawk in Mythic Europe, and hence the most widely flown, sparrowhawks are often captured in the wild. If purchased, six untrained birds can be bought for a pound. Remove the Quality Fast Flyer, reduce Size to –4, and add Beak Init +8, Attack +6, Defense +13, Damage –7. Sparrowhawks are notoriously difficult to raise, with an Aging rolls modifier of –3 and a Stamina of –3, giving them Soak –3 to reflect their extreme fragility. They are naturally perverse, sometimes dying just to spite their owners. Staff are any folk who are dedicated to the care and maintenance of the stables as their primary occupation, spending at least three seasons a year in this role and typically possessing the Abilities Animal Handling, Ride, and Hunt.

The Living Conditions modifier applies to the animals, not the staff, but if it is higher than the prevailing Living Condition of the residences, then the staff also benefit from it. The Living Conditions modifier assumes that a suitable specialist is available (see Living Conditions and Specialists, later.)

Paying the annual maintenance cost keeps the number of animals constant, through breeding and training. Exceptional circumstances, such as an outbreak of disease, may reduce the number of animals, as may failure to meet maintenance costs, or an interruption of supplies, such as during a siege. Reduce the number of animals by 15% (round up) for each season these requirements are not met. The cost of initially purchasing the animals is not included in the maintenance cost. Failure to meet the annual maintenance cost results in the establishment dropping to the next lower level of quality immediately.

While the maintenance cost covers replacing normal losses, players may wish to keep track of the aging of superior and particular animals separately, as described in the various sections describing horses, hounds, and hawks earlier in this chapter.

A superior stables or better requires at least one specialist (a marshal, head falconer, or master of kennels) with the appropriate Profession Ability. Royal quality establishments require additional specialists.

The Kennels

The size of a noble's kennels is a reliable indicator of his prestige and status. While even a lowly knight may own a greyhound as a companion, a mastiff for guarding his home, and a pair or two of running dogs, landed nobles and the higher aristocracy are often expected to maintain large kennels at sometimes ruinous expense. A major noble might possess fifty to sixty hounds, but any huntsman requires a dozen good running dogs and a lymer as a minimum for the hunt. Other nobles participating in a hunt typically bring some of their own hounds with them, with the most valuable dogs often transported in special wagons. Kings and liege lords may require, as a feudal duty, the maintenance of a kennel by their vassals, for when they are hunting in the vicinity. Woe betide the noble who fails to provide hounds of suitable excellence for his lord's pleasure.

A kennel usually houses a certain ratio of types of hounds, so that for every 12 running dogs there is one lymer and three greyhounds or alaunts, though the numbers are approximate. A standard kennel has this basic quantity of dogs, which constitute the very minimum for hunting. A superior kennel has two to four times these basic quantities, and an excellent or royal kennel five or more times the basic quantities. Mastiffs kept as working dogs are usually available if required, and bird dogs and harriers are kept if hawking and bow and stable hunting are favored pursuits of the kennel's owner.

The Mews

Falcons and hawks are kept in a mews, a house set aside for this purpose, where the falconer and his assistant live with the birds. They may have their own caged courtyard and fountain as well, and a low, stable-like building if the mews is large enough.

The Stables

Horses are kept in stables. See the Stables table for more information.

Kennels, Mews, and Stables Tables

Kennels

Quality Capacity (hounds) Maintenance (pounds/year) Staff Living Conditions Modifier

Shoddy (Inn/Farm) 8 0 0 –1

Standard (Knight) 16 1 2 0

Superior (Noble) 48 5 6 +1

Excellent (Great Noble) 80 20 12 +2

Royal 150+ 100 36 +3

Mews

Quality Capacity (birds) Maintenance (pounds/year) Staff Living Conditions Modifier

Shoddy (Loft) 3 0 0 –1

Standard (Knight) 6 0 1 0

Superior (Noble) 15 5 3 +1

Excellent (Great Noble) 30 10 5 +2

Royal 100 100 10 +3

Stables

Quality Capacity (horses) Maintenance (pounds/year) Staff Living Conditions Modifier

Shoddy (Inn/Farm) 3 0 0 –1

Standard (Knight) 6 1 per horse* 2 0

Superior (Noble) 18 2 per horse 6 +1

Excellent (Great Noble) 40 3 per horse 12 +2

Royal 250 5 per horse 36 +3

\*Knights do not need to pay this maintenance, however, as it is already calculated in their expenditure.

Living Conditions and Specialists

An individual with a score in the relevant Profession Ability equal to at least twice the Living Conditions modifier is required for an establishment to make use of a positive Living Conditions modifier. Alternatively, an individual without the appropriate Ability may dedicate a season each year to running the establishment and thereby preserve the Living Conditions modifier, so long as he has a score in Animal Handling at least three times the positive Living Conditions modifier.

A stress roll of Intelligence + Animal Handling against Ease Factor 9, or Intelligence + Profession Marshal, Profession Falconer, or Profession Master of Kennels as appropriate against Ease Factor 9, should made annually in the winter. A success indicates the establishment is well run. A failure causes a decline of establishment quality by one class, which does not improve until the test is made successfully in a later year, when it reverts one class upwards toward its original quality. Maintenance costs remains at the original level regardless of a temporarily lower quality due to poor maintenance. A botch indicates a catastrophe, of which the most common are fires, outbreaks of disease in the animals, theft, or a situation requiring a story to resolve.

New Virtues

Master of Kennels

Social Status, Minor
The character manages the kennels for a noble patron, and is responsible for the training, breeding, and health of the animals. He has an appropriate staff under him, depending on the size of the kennels, and often possesses the privilege of riding with the hunt. He may be considered an intimate and important member of the noble household, despite his common birth, and be treated with commensurate respect. He is also expected to organize the huntsmen — that is, the dog handlers — and train servants or locals to perform that role. He should possess the Ability Profession Master of Kennels, which governs the care of the dogs, treatment of their diseases, and acquisition and breeding of hounds. The Ability Animal Handling is used for the training of the animals. A master of kennels receives 50 extra experience points at character generation to spend on the abilities Animal Handling, Etiquette, Hunt, Latin, Profession Master of Kennels, and Ride, and may take Martial Abilities freely.

Falconer

Social Status, Minor
The character trains hawks and falcons for a noble patron, and is responsible for the training, breeding, and health of the animals. He often has a personal servant to assist, and is an important member of the noble household, treated with great respect. He should possess the Ability Profession Falconer, which governs the care of the birds, treatment of their diseases, and acquisition and breeding of hawks and falcons. The Ability Animal Handling is used for the training of the hawks. A specialist in non-falcons, such as the hawks, is called an austringer.
A falconer receives 50 extra experience points at character generation to spend on the Abilities Animal Handling, Area Lore, Etiquette, Hunt, Latin, Profession Falconer, and Ride. Many falconers are also Educated.

Marshal

Social Status, Minor
As well as their non-specialist staff, superior stables and above require a specialist to coordinate the care, feeding, and welfare of the animals. This person is called a marshal, and the title holds considerable honor. The Marshal of England is the king's official in charge of his cavalry, but even the marshal of a baron is an important personage, given the vital roles played by horses in warfare and hunting, as well as routine travel.
A marshal should take the Ability Profession Marshal, which deals with understanding, purchasing, and caring for horses. It functions as the Ability Medicine for the purpose of treating veterinary diseases, and for surgery involving these animals. A marshal receives 50 extra experience points at character generation to spend on the abilities Animal Handling, Etiquette, Hunt, Latin, Profession Marshal and Ride, and may take Martial Abilities freely.
A marshal may overseen other specialists, including farriers who make horseshoes; leatherworkers who produce tack, harness, and saddles; and the trained staff who administer day-to-day grooming and mucking out of the stables.

Romance

There is one form of noble sport, perhaps akin to hunting, that raises more controversy than any other does. This is the practice of fin' amors, or, as it sometimes called, courtly love. Originating in Provence and Burgundy, the practice was popularized by Eleanor of Aquitaine, through her reached England and France, and is also now widely known in the regions comprising the Iberian, Rhine, and Roman Tribunals. Celebrated by the troubadours, the practice has elaborate rules, causes considerable scandal, and is widely condemned by the Church.

In 1174 Andreas Capellanus wrote the definitive work on fin' amors, entitled Incipit liber amoris et curtesie, more often referred to by the shorter title De Amore. This book sets the rules of romance, and it is clear why controversy has dogged the work. Capellanus declares that true love between a man and wife is impossible, in contradiction to the teachings of the Church, and the apparently happy marriages of many. It follows, for Capellanus, that one must seek love outside of the marital home, practiced ideally in a love affair between a noble suitor and a married lady. Indeed, if the lady is not married, and hence unobtainable, true love may not blossom.

The Pursuit of Love

The affair begins with the noble beholding a lady of great worth and beauty, and being entranced by her physical charms. The beholder immediately loses his composure, and from this point on is subject to nothing but thoughts of the lady, and the urgent need to win her favors. Sleep escapes him, and other pursuits hold no excitement; he devotes himself completely to the romantic quest to obtain her love.

The pursuit must be achieved by certain methods alone. A handsome appearance, honesty of character, and fluent and eloquent speech are the primary methods. However, acts of great valor or heroism inspired by the lady, or dedicated to her, are also part of the pursuit. Love knows no social boundaries, and a male — even a commoner if learned in the arts of love — may seek romance from the noblest lady, even a queen. Here is another threat to the divinely ordered nature of things, and any commoner presumptuous enough to pursue the love of a noble lady runs a terrible risk. Only the clergy should seek to avoid romance. Equally deadly, according to Capellanus, is to seek the heart of a nun, and so vile an infamy that it destroys one's reputation forever. Equally unacceptable is to love a whore, for that cheapens the noble romance to a coarse and commercial prospect.

At first the lover should adore his lady secretly, and take every opportunity to seek out her company and gaze lovingly upon her person. Eventually there comes a time when he must profess his love to her, and she then chastely refuse his advances, with scorn and coldness. Even if the lady ardently desires the lover, and deliberately sought his attentions (for many ladies initiate the romance by their actions and subtle encouragements), she must act coldly, and treat the lover as if he was a source of disgust to her. He must then prove his devotion, and pursue her. The pursuit of the lady is primarily a matter of Charm, but appropriate gifts and performances in her honor are to be expected. Gifts may be given and received, but money should not be the means of gaining her heart. At all times both parties must be discreet, and under no circumstances must the lady's husband discover the affair. Trusted servants and friends act as go betweens, and Intrigue is used to arrange meetings in suitably romantic situations.

At all times the lover should be jealous and passionate, and watch out for rivals, suspecting all. He must also eschew all other ladies, for to pursue another or seek comfort elsewhere would be to betray love. He must obey every whim and command of his lady, and prove his moral worth, bravery, and most of all utter devotion. To him salvation is his lady, and she is his religion, she his lord, he her obedient vassal in all matters of the heart.

Finally the lady deigns to grant the lover her favor, and the affair is consummated. In the southern tradition this may imply a full sexual relationship, and adultery. To what extent this actually occurs is little known, since couples who do and don’t all have strong reasons to keep the facts secret, but both parties run the risk of death if an affair is discovered. In France and England the platonic nature of the love is stressed, and adultery denied and decried, as in the popular romance of Tristan and Iseult, where their adultery brings disaster upon the lovers. In these regions, romance is seen as a chaste game, and may even be smilingly approved by trusting husbands. Most husbands, however, with an eye to ensuring their heirs are truly their own, regard the fin’ amors as a dangerous and corrupting pastime, not to be practiced on their wives.

Love is an inborn suffering, which results from the sight of, and uncontrolled thinking about, the beauty of the other sex. This feeling makes a man desire before all else the embraces of the other sex, and to achieve the utter fulfillment of the commands of love in the other's embrace by their common desire.
— Andreas Capellanus

The Rules of Love

Andreas Capellanus lists 12 Laws of Love.

1. You shall avoid avarice like a deadly pestilence and embrace its opposite.
1. You shall keep yourself chaste for the sake of her whom you love.
1. You shall not knowingly strive to break up a correct love affair that someone else is engaged in.
1. You shall not choose for your lover anyone whom a natural sense of shame forbids you to marry.
1. You shall completely avoid lying.
1. You shall not have many who know of your love affair.
1. Being obedient in all things to the commands of ladies, you shall ever strive to ally yourself to the service of love.
1. In giving and receiving love be modest at all times.
1. You shall speak no slander.
1. You shall not be a revealer of love affairs.
1. You shall be in all things polite and courteous.
1. You shall not exceed the desires of your lover.

Is Love True?

Historians remain deeply divided over to what extent courtly love was an ideal, and to what extent a reality, in medieval society. Troupes should decide for their saga whether courtly love represents an ideal played at by knights and ladies, or a real practice. Is courtly love an idealized platonic romance mainly playacted, and accepted by many as harmless and diverting, or a tempestuous and real passion leading many to adultery and ruin? In some sagas romance will not feature at all, being merely something troubadours sing about. In others, it will be a real and potent force — this is Mythic Europe after all! It is hard from the extant sources for us to be sure of the truth, so the troupe must decide if it wishes to employ the motif in its stories. Three main considerations apply.
First, no character with the True Love or Lost Love Virtue or Flaw may ever be caught up in romance, except with the object of their affections.
Second, no character should be involved in a romance subplot unless the character actively seeks it out. Keep in mind that a romance can be initiated by a lady as much as her suitor; indeed, scheming to ensnare a noble's love is perfectly acceptable. While Andreas Capellanus writes mainly from the male perspective, the lady is a full partner in whom power is ultimately vested in the relationship. She has the ability to end it at any time, or choose to scorn any potential lover.
Finally, romances should always require stories, rather than being something that "just happens." As the ancient cliché has it, "the path of true love never runs smooth," and complications, opportunities for heroic adventure, and moonlit intrigues are the very stuff of the romance. Stories, not mechanics, should drive a developing relationship between lovers, and the ever-present threat of discovery should add a certain spice.

Patronage

Medieval society runs off a series of interconnected obligations and favors. The feudal system has a set of vassal-liege relationships that run from the lowest level of society to the very highest, but the process is not oneway despite the hierarchical basis of society. Even landed knights and nobles struggle to meet from their manorial incomes the many expenses they face, and just as they offer support and justice to the villeins, cottars, and freemen who reside upon their estates, and receive service on the demesne and fees and dues in return, so they expect to receive assistance from their social betters. Without significant assistance many lesser nobles would be unable to enjoy the lifestyles they do. Gifting money, food, expensive equipment, or even land grants is common and expected of one's liege. Traditionally, gifting takes place at the major religious festivals, Christmas, Pentecost, and Easter. The nature of gifts may be proscribed or left to the discretion of those who give them.

Patronage — the distribution of land, money, favors, and titles to one's loyal vassals — is a vital part of the politics game. A generous gift can secure support as much or more than a politically advantageous marriage, and greater nobles and kings use this power wisely. If too much is granted, such as a hereditary fief, the noble can grow to become a potentially dangerous rival, yet if too little is given he may brood in resentment and begin to plot treachery. Recognition and status are as important as monetary gifts. A feast given in a noble's honor, a title bestowed (even if accompanied by little actual wealth), a gift of clothing, or even a fine horse publicly given, may all increase a noble's reputation as a prudhomme — "an upstanding man" — and result, in game terms, in an increase in a positive noble Reputation. Favors may be as intangible as words of friendship, but those who understand Intrigue realize that the having ear of a king makes jealous enemies as well as powerful friends.

It is important to reflect the customs of gift- and grant-giving in play. Lieges should provide their vassals with wealth, and player characters should benefit from this largesse, lest their feudal relationships appear entirely one-sided. Vassals who find themselves under attack or threat from others may appeal to the king for justice, and in some cases even receive military assistance (although usually, news that a high-ranking noble backs one's cause is sufficient to end any unpleasantness, lest his wrath descend upon a transgressor).

Just as a lord is a recipient of patronage, so he should be a generous giver to cement useful alliances. The Intrigue Ability allows an understanding of the complicated politics of any given situation, and the leverage that a carefully given gift might bring to bear. Even the lowliest cottar should receive (indirectly) the benefits of his lord's largesse, in acts of alms or public feasts, because this ensures the loyalty of the estate's people.

When characters direct their patronage at specific individuals who belong to a certain social group, this is reflected in a new Reputation applicable to that social group, and improves a Loyal Personality Trait in the recipient that is directed toward the patron. (For more on Reputations and Noble Reputation in particular see Chapter Two: Politics, Reputation.) For example, if Jonathan Carpenter builds a new nave for the dilapidated parish church, he may gain the Reputation Patron (Clergy) and the benefits of a Loyal +1 (or more) Personality Trait in the priest, as well as a single Gratitude point on behalf of the Church from the grateful priest and parishioners, which may well prove useful in future stories. (Remember that the Church is a major landholder, and the ecclesiastical authorities can grant manors or bring influence to bear to help you achieve an office, like any other lord.) All nobles of both genders should indulge in generous patronage of causes dear to their hearts, and many a noble lady has been a patron to a struggling artist, paid for fine renovations to a church, or supported a scholar and received a book dedicated to her in return.

The main groups who can be influenced by a Reputation arising from patronage are the types listed in Ars Magica Fifth Edition, with two additions. Reputations can pertain to Local (meaning all in the vicinity), Clergy, Order of Hermes, Nobles, or Academics. Artists may also be patronized, but the Reputation thus gained applies to one of the other groups, designated as the intended audience. Someone who is known by reputation as a generous patron in one of these groups can expect positive modifiers in future social interactions with others of the same class. Appropriate forms of patronage are discussed for each of these groups in turn in the sections that follow.

Local Reputations generally apply when a noble grants patronage to his own estates or local area. The granting of royal charters is a form of patronage performed by the crown that raises its Reputation, but most nobles, lacking the authority to grant royal charters, are only able to offer feasts, alms, or possibly the relaxation of feudal dues, though the latter creates a dangerous precedent and diminishes the noble's power. Acts of kind charity and impartial justice can go a long way towards gaining a positive Reputation, and a small amount of silver can help in times of hardship. The granting of offices is one very popular way of expressing patronage (see Chapter Two: Politics, Offices). Unfortunately, this form of patronage is unlikely to earn Gratitude points.

Acting as a patron to the Order of Hermes is fraught with difficulties, discussed in Chapter Four: Interference.

Patronage to other nobles usually means granting gifts to one's vassals, such as knights, or to one's liege in hope of favor. Meeting one's feudal obligations is not patronage, however. Patronage means an exceptional gift, whether of a manor, a fine horse or hound, or a gift of money or food to assist in times of hardship. Outfitting one's knights with fine chargers and excellent quality arms and armor might be a normal gift, unworthy of any Reputation increase, whereas granting a sum of thirty pounds to a knight experiencing difficulties would be an exceptional gift worthy of praise. Gifts may, however, be offered to one's liege to help cement the relationship. A finely trained Hawk of Virtue, the hide of a magical beast hunted and slain by one's own hand, or a magical device or ancient treasure might qualify as a gift worthy of one's liege, and earn a point of Gratitude (see Chapter Two: Politics, Gratitude), as well as experience in one's Noble Reputation.

Artists are frequent recipients of patronage, and indeed many of them depend upon patronage for their survival and continued work. Artistic patronage may seem strangely altruistic, for artists generally seem to have little to offer in return other than their aesthetic productions. Yet in fact art is a powerful political force. Troubadours, for example, may sing of a noble's distinguished genealogy, cementing his claim to nobility and importance, granting him legendary ancestors of distinction, and perhaps legitimizing future legal or inheritance claims based upon these very legends. A noble's arms and device seen in fine artworks may spread knowledge to the burgers of nearby towns his learning, culture, and benign justice. The art a patron funds usually celebrates him and his dynasty as much as it does the artwork's supposed theme. The Reputation of a patron of artists does not increase among artists (though other artists definitely pay attention to the patronage of their peers, and enthusiastically seek further patronage of known patrons), but rather among a group the patron wishes to target. Paying an artist to produce ecclesiastical murals or statuary, for example, increases one's reputation with the clergy, whereas having a fine miniature painted of one's liege improves one's standing in noble circles. A story ostensibly about Arthurian legend but that celebrates one's ancestor's prowess as, say, a dragon slayer, or memorializes her legendary beauty, may well improve one's standing in the local community, and even academics can be won over by suitably fine works of art. Artistic patronage is therefore extremely versatile, but it does require a lengthy relationship and considerable continued expenditure compared with granting a benefice to a clergyman or helping out a knight who faces a famine on his manor after terrible crop blight. Full rules for artistic patronage from the recipients' perspective are given in Art & Academe, page 130.

Academic patronage can serve the purpose of promoting an idealized view of its patron. Supporting a scholar, however, also has definite benefits in terms of access to learning, and further helps with the education of a patron's children. Nobles are not unaware of the importance of academics in extending political influence, and so many academic works are dedicated to a patron who sponsored their writing. This form of immortality, like artistic patronage, can be undertaken for purely altruistic reasons, but generally the patron enjoys basking in the reflected glory of his protégé's success. Nonetheless, one must be careful, for many a noble has supported an academic only to find their beneficiary guilty of heresy or worse, and this can lead to disaster.

It is far safer to provide patronage to the Church, normally in the form of a monastery or parish church. The most basic form of patronage is the right to appoint a priest. If a noble builds a church upon his land, the right to appoint the incumbent who receives its income resides with the noble, not with the Church. Many parishes all over Europe were created this way, and these rights of appointment are inherited by the noble's heirs. The right of a noble to appoint clergy who reflect his own concerns as well the Church's interests is a very useful one, and it also provides a handy way of dealing with younger sons who will not stand to inherit. Similarly, patronage of a monastery, which always seem keen to conduct expensive building works, gains one not only a potentially powerful ally but also a place to retire in extremis, place unmarriageable daughters, or seek medical aid. Many prosperous peasants give money to monasteries as a kind of retirement pension, paying sums that guarantee them the right to retire there when they are too frail to work their lands, and do not wish to be a burden on or dependent to their heirs. Nobles have less need to plan for this eventuality, though there remains for nobles the further consideration of the state of their immortal soul.

Whatever patronage is granted, giving generously is a noble virtue that has important real-world benefits. Noble characters do well to consider the options available to them, and to plan carefully how to best employ their wealth to cement their position and to further their long-term goals. To be a miser is a terrible thing; medieval society does not value frugality, but quite the reverse. To be a noble is to be given stewardship, by God, of wealth. Failure to shower coin upon the pursuit of a noble life is to deny one's social standing, attract the contempt of ones peers, and possibly earn a bad Reputation.

The Tournament

Tournaments of the 13th century mean three things to those who take part: experience, reputation, and wealth. Young knights crave the rush of battle while noble sponsors seek recognition and status. Worldly participants enter the tournament looking to extract ransom from prisoners, and the humble peasant classes take what earnings they can from the gathered nobility. But above all, the tournament is the practice ground for war.

Tournaments generally last only a day or two. The first day sees the knights gather, find lodgings, feast, and socialize. As the evening wears on and the office of vespers is sung, the knights may gather for commencailles, individual trials of sword and lance that continue while the light lasts.

The melee, a mock battle between hundreds or even thousands of combatants divided into two teams, takes place on the final day of the tournament. On the morning of the melee, the heralds run through the streets and encampments calling the knights to mass. After they have massed, there is often time for the younger knights to resume their commencailles. This allows them to be seen by potential employers, and provides further opportunity for ransom to be claimed from defeated opponents.

The main event starts with the regars, or review, where both sides parade in all their colors and call out their war cries in a show of high pomp and ceremony. The teams are usually drawn up along national or political lines. Members of each team know who has arrived, who will participate in the melee, and which factions they would naturally fight alongside. Team allegiance is shown through pennons tied to lances or bridles. The heralds make every effort to ensure the teams are roughly equal in strength, and knights generally accept reassignment with good grace.

With the opposing lines formed, the estor, or signal to charge, is sounded. The knights, accompanied by a cacophony of cries, drums, and trumpets, charge forward. As the lines draw close the knights lower their lances and pick their targets. After the clash of the initial charge the sides turn and descend into melee.

Before long the field is littered with smaller fights, lone knights in individual combat, and groups wheeling around each other. Here and there the desperate cry of "fiance" is heard as a knight submits under force of arms.

The grand charge always pits two teams against each other but each larger teams usually consists of several smaller companies. The priorities of any knight in the melee are his own fortune and safety, followed by that of his company, and finally that of his team. Being on a team does not preclude making deals with the opposition. Despite never fighting side-by-side, William Marshal and the Flemish knight Roger de Jouy had an arrangement to share the profit from all ransoms they took in a single tournament year.

The night of the melee turns to feasting, and the most prestigious feast is that hosted by the tournament's patron. It is there that the prizes are announced and awarded.

Staging a Tournament

Tournaments range from the grand events of France with thousands of knights riding in the retinues of wealthy nobles to more modest affairs with around one hundred knights, nobles, patrons, and sponsors in attendance. Large and small, tournaments are held throughout the year with the exceptions of Lent and harvest time. Even in winter months the circuit is active and a tournament can usually be found every two weeks. This schedule allows participants time to recover from their wounds and travel between tournament sites. In each country, a large tournament — in excess of a thousand knights — can be found on average once per season, while an event in excess of three thousand will likely take place only once per year.

Bohorts, Tirocinia, and Jousts

A bohort is an informal and impromptu tournament, essentially a rough-and-tumble between friends and comrades, usually conducted with blunted or even wooden weapons (the latter of which are very often simply sticks taken up from the roadside). Armor is not generally within the spirit of the bohort. Use the non-lethal combat rules on ArM5, page 174 or the additional rules in Chapter Nine: Optional Combat Rules, Option: Non-Lethal Combat.
Tirocinia are tournaments open to younger and less-experienced knights that remove the threat of being targeted by seasoned elders looking for easy ransom. The rules of tirocinia are the same as for open events, but participants over the age of 25 are rare.
The joust sees two knights ride at each other with couched lances. Jousting usually takes place before the melee. At some tournaments, a whole day may be set aside for jousting, providing additional practice and entertainment. The ransoms won and lost are the same as for the melee. The joust is gaining in popularity as an event in itself, as a means of avoiding bans on grand tournaments.

France is the tournament heartland, home to the largest events, and knights from all across Mythic Europe journey there to compete. But tournaments can also be found anywhere that European knights and nobles are found, including the Holy Land. Tournaments in England and the Levant, which are often relatively small, are most often sited near towns, while the continent favors locations on the borders between neighboring nobles, where it is common for both to sponsor the event.

Patronage

Tournaments need wealthy patrons who give over their land, time, and fortune to stage these events, often against pressure from both Church and state. Even in France, the tournament can be seen as a challenge to royal authority. Participants in the tournament risk excommunication, and those who die at such events are often denied Christian burial.

But such considerations are not enough to stop patrons from holding tournaments. The opportunity to strengthen friendships and monitor enemies is rarely passed up. And in any case, nobles are brought up to enjoy certain things and the tournament provides them all: fighting, feasting, politicking, and other entertainments.

In 1220, tournaments in England are more rare than on the continent. For much of the previous century, hard on the heels of a civil war, tournaments had been banned by King Henry II. It was not until 1194 that King Richard allowed the events to take place, though he controlled them by granting royal charters. Even in the reign of Henry III tournaments are sometimes viewed as challenges to royal authority. The draw of the tournament is such that patrons are often willing to hold unlicensed events.

Costs

Holding a tournament is a costly business. Messengers are employed to attract participants; while criers draw knights to the tourney, envoys take written invitations to select dignitaries. And in the meantime, the tournament site needs preparation, with carpenters and laborers building stands to allow wealthy observers a comfortable view of events. Patrons also engage artists, chroniclers, or poets to record their events for posterity, commissioning artworks to portray their tournaments in the best and most exciting light. And since tournaments attract powerful individuals, grand receptions, feasts, and fitting entertainments must be provided. A degree of opulence is both expected and provided.

Patrons award prizes to those knights who show great courage, and to the knight judged to have been the best. Jewels and artifacts of silver and gold are often awarded. Their value most often comes from being unusual, unique, or masterworks. Patrons take delight in awarding prizes not seen at other tournaments. Crafted items awarded as prizes are never less than superior quality works (see City & Guild, page 69). It is common for noble animals to be awarded as prizes, often with costly harnesses. Falcons, hounds, and horses are popular. Sometimes animals are chosen for their comedy value.

Story Seed: The Silent Tourney

The king has banned all tournaments but there is talk of a private circuit run by a mysterious sponsor. The events are by invitation only and nobody seems to know where they will take place next. After a lapse in piety, a knight known to the covenant receives an invitation.
The sponsor is a corrupting demon and the teams who fight at his tournaments are filled with those who have died at tournament, live in a state of sin, and have been denied God's grace.
After discovering the truth behind the silent tournament, can the magi or their companions help the dead gain release? Can these unfortunate souls be absolved, or are the undead knights too entrenched in sin to be saved? And why is the herald a point of calm in the Infernal maelstrom?

As a rule of thumb, a patron should spend ten Mythic Pounds per point of his Prudhomme Reputation to hold a tournament. Anything less is seen as not befitting his station.

Team Sponsors

Some sponsors pay substantial retainers to companies of knights to fight under their banner. The sponsor is responsible for replacing lost horses, arming his men, and ensuring that all their needs are paid for. Henry the Young King, son of Henry II of England, took five hundred knights to the tourney at Lagny-sur-Marne in November 1179 at a cost of over two hundred pounds per day. Most nobles can expect to pay four Mythic Pounds per season per knight retained for tourney.

The Tournament Site

A tournament site stretches over acres of land marked out by landmarks such as roads or villages. Most of this land is given over to the melee, allowing the fighting to sprawl out.

Story Seed: The Falcon of Virtue

A nobleman sends to the covenant for help in trapping a rare bird that he intends to award as a tournament prize. He has heard of a falcon whose feathers burn with the sunlight, whose talons are sharp as flint, whose flight is as silent as the air, and whose temper is as calm as a summer lake. The nobleman is wealthy and prepared to lay down a handsome price for the bird. Upon capturing the bird the covenant discovers it carries a shocking secret. Can they now turn the falcon over to the lord?

The lists, usually wooden hoardings, stakes, or earth embankments, mark out the starting points for both sides and are found next to the melee ground. It is here that many of the commencailles and much of the individual jousting takes place.

Stands are often built close to the lists to afford the best view of the knights. Those of lower birth must content themselves with watching from the hillsides that usually overlook the fields.

Recets are safe havens, clearly marked out within the melee fields. No fighting is allowed within these recets, and knights that have succumbed to their enemies make their way back to either the recets or the lists.

Lodgings

Knights arriving at tournament are divided into two teams, according to national or local allegiances, and two sets of lodgings are provided. Where the tournament is held outside a town lodgings are provided both "within" and "without" the town walls, a naming convention that also applies to open encampments. The lodgings are considered recets, out of bounds for the melee.

Prices of goods and lodging within towns hosting tournaments are often very high. There is little deference shown for social standing and rooms are quickly taken by those who arrive early. The wealthy often send agents ahead to ensure lodgings are secured.

Story Seed: A Hermetic Sponsor

A nearby magus is secretly sponsoring a team of knights active in the local tourney circuit. Other knights in the area ask the covenant for aid against the seemingly unbeatable team. But what does the Code say about this? Has the Hermetic sponsor exposed a weakness the covenant can use against him?

Tournament as Fair

The tournament is very much like a fair, with crowds that must be fed, watered, and entertained. Local armorers, horse merchants, and other traders ensure they have wares for knights who lose mounts and equipment. Carpenters and laborers gain work building and taking down the lists and stands. In most cases these journeymen supply their labor in return for being allowed to retain the materials bought by the patron. Chirurgeons turn a brisk trade as they patch up wounded knights after each round of contests.

Heralds are central to the tournament. They range from lowly, unwashed criers to those who travel the circuit memorizing the names, ensigns, and achievements of men of worth. Whatever their status, they also provide commentary, crying out at events within the melee. Senior heralds also act as adjudicators during the commencailles and melee.

Rules of Melee

A tournament's melee is subject to certain rules and customs. The recets, and any villages and churches in the melee field, are safe territory and no fighting is allowed within them. In addition, those not taking part are not to be molested. Beyond these rules, there are also points of honor to observe. A noble who enters his company into the melee is expected to ride with them, and gains little credit if he does not place himself in harm's way.

While the rules of tourney are clear, they are not always obeyed. Knights may be fined for breaking rules and in particular may be forced to pay for damages to the host's property or churches. Tactical advantage may outweigh this threat and the knights often do as they please. One noted underhand tactic is to ride to the lists prior to estor but not join the melee until later, when the fighting has taken its toll on the other participants. The heralds acting as adjudicators are not above purchase, and may be paid to look the other way, allowing such knights free rein.

Ransom

The aim of the melee is to force surrender, or fiance, and thereby secure a ransom, usually the knight's horse, his armor, or even his weapons. Great sums of money can also be extracted, and the wealthy should expect to be held to account if they lose at tournament.

Payment of ransom is a matter of honor. Those who do not make good their promises gain 1 experience point towards an appropriate negative Reputation. It is considered poor etiquette to extract too high a price from a poor, young, or inexperienced knight. There have been many cases of knights being forced by their peers to return ransoms to those who could not afford the price. The wealthy expect to pay ransoms according to their status, and may take umbrage if a ransom beneath their station is demanded.

It is reasonable to take both horse and armor from a wealthy knight, either horse or armor from a knight of average means, and perhaps weapons from a poor knight. Service cannot be demanded as a ransom, nor can oaths of loyalty.

Companies of Men

An independent knight makes an easy target, so most knights entering the tournament do so within the protection of a company. Companies can be of any size, and ride out wearing common colors and under a single banner so as to be identified. They also cry out chants and war cries both at the estor and through the melee. Companies engage as trained groups of usually no more than ten individuals (or six if using the core combat rules), with larger companies breaking into smaller groups.

Knights attacking as groups often attempt to separate their target from a defending group. They then grapple or cut the knight's reins and lead his horse, along with its powerless rider, away so as to extract ransom. See the grappling rules in ArM5, page 174. A grappled rider loses control of his horse to his attackers.

Profession Herald

It is the job of the herald to know the tournament circuit, the knights who attend, and their devices, colors, and deeds. The conscientious herald ensures that he knows of upcoming tournaments, and so may find work as a crier sent out to publicize them. The Ability Profession: Herald allows a character to recognize knights by their colors and heraldic devices, and to recall their various victories, defeats, and even injuries. This Ability represents the herald's knowledge of the procedures of a tourney, and helps him adjudicate matters of process and tournament law. It also allows him to locate any tournaments in any area for which he has an Area Lore score of at least 1.

Magic at the Tournament

Magi of House Verditius often send agents to tournaments in anticipation of business. Over the years many minor enchantments have been created and sold specifically for the tournament, including reins that cannot be cut, saddles that grasp their rider firmly, and arms and armor of unnatural quality. Most such enchantments are designed to last only a lifetime. The legality of this remains questionable and the view taken may differ between Tribunals.
There are other minor workers of magic who also offer charms and potions, blessings and sometimes curses, to knights eager for advantage. Faeries, too, may seek out those whose stories attract and feed them, offering them arms, armor, or even horses with unusual powers.
Both the Divine and Infernal can also
be found at tournaments. The devout invoke patron saints and ask for protection on the field and success against their enemies. The unwary or unscrupulous may enter into bargains with diabolic forces to assure victory, wealth, and acclaim.

Story Seed: The Craftsman

A local Verditius complains to a Quaesitor that a magus from a neighboring Tribunal is flouting the Code by crossing the border and selling enchanted devices to knights at local tournaments. What is the legal situation? Does the foreign magus know where his devices are being sold? And is the Quaesitor simply becoming a pawn in a vendetta between the two magi?

Tournament Combat

Knights in the melee should use the temporary damage rules in Chapter Nine: Optional Combat Rules, Options: Non-Lethal Combat, but in the heat of battle, the fighting may become more earnest. Characters may choose on a round-byround basis whether they intend to use non-lethal combat. Botches in non-lethal combat almost always inflict real damage to one party or another.

The full range of special maneuvers described in Chapter Nine: Optional Combat Rules can be employed in both the commencailles and the melee. Combatants may attempt to pull their opponents from their saddles, or cut their reins and lead their horses away.

The Commencailles

The vespers, or commencailles, are an important showcase for individual talent and another source of ransoms for the victors. These contests can take several forms but are most often single combat, either jousting or fencing.

Jousting

At the call to charge, two opposing knights, both mounted and armed with lances, attempt to unhorse the other. Each charge comprises a single combat round, and each knight has enough time between charges to take up a new lance or shield. Botches may result in the breaking of equipment or injury to either horse or rider. Use the shock of the charge rules (see Chapter Nine: Optional Combat Rules, Option: Shock of the Charge) to determine the outcome of each charge.

Melee Events Table

Rolls on this table have a modifier equal to the character's Prudhomme Reputation. The character may also spend Confidence Points on the roll, which can be used to modify the roll in either direction. Botch dice on the roll are equal to 1 + (1 per melee event rolled so far). Botches generally cause accidents, such as falling from a mount, breaking equipment, or seriously injuring an opponent.

Roll Result

0–2 An inexperienced knight presents as a target.

3–4 A lone Poor knight presents as a target.

5–6 A lone average knight presents as a target.

7–8 A Poor knight protected by a company presents as a target.

9–10 An average knight protected by a company presents as a target.

11–12 A Wealthy knight protected by a company presents as a target.

13–14 The character's company is targeted by a group of equal size.

15–16 The character's company is targeted by a large company of two combat groups.

17+ The character's company is targeted by a large company of three combat groups.

The rules of the joust may change between venues. The simplest sees the winner declared if he knocks his opponent from his horse. In some cases, if both riders remain in their saddles after a set number of passes, judges may declare a winner, perhaps by a count of broken lances or by which knight took the lightest hit. In others venues the joust continues until one knights submits. This almost always means that the contest goes beyond lances and horseback, and ends with the two knights engaged on foot.

Fencing

Contests between two knights on foot are usually fought in a roped-off ring. As with the joust, the rules often vary from meet to meet. Some restrict the choice of weapons, others allow new weapons to be taken up in mid-fight. The aim always remains clear: to force one's opponent to offer fiance.

It is common for men of lower birth to show their prowess in bare-knuckle fighting. Covenants looking for tough men in need of employment seek out the less seemly parts of tournaments.

The Grand Charge

There are two ways to adjudicate the grand charge in play. The first is as a set of random encounters on the tourney field. These present opportunities for the characters to collect ransoms. The second is as a battle between the two armies, with the player characters in the pivotal positions.

As a set of random encounters, characters in the melee make a stress roll on the Melee Events Table. If the character takes the opportunity and does not lose (he may also refuse the opportunity or attempt to disengage), he has the option of making another roll on the table. Characters riding as a company make a single, collective rolls on the table.

Opponents encountered on the field are likely to pick up minor injuries the longer the melee goes on. At each event past the first assume that the opponent(s) have picked up a new short-term light wound. So if the characters attempt a third event, their opponents normally have two short-term light wounds.

High Ambition

For characters wanting to influence the overall outcome of the melee, the troupe should devise one or more story events based on how the player characters want to influence the battle. Examples might include hunting down the most senior knight in the opposing army, defending a set position, or sweeping through the field targeting stray knights.

The massed combat rules can be applied with the following modifications:

Recets and other out-of-bounds areas are treated as baggage areas.
All combat is non-lethal.
The only troops involved are knights, serjeants, and men-at-arms.
There is no territorial advantage or weight of numbers bonus.

If the player characters survive the events without surrendering, their side wins the tourney and they gain prizes and recognition in line with their efforts.

Gaining and Losing Reputation

As described in Chapter Two: Politics, a noble character seeks to improve his standing and reputation with his fellow nobles, represented by his Prudhomme Reputation. If a character achieves any of the following in a season of tourneying, he gains the highest indicated experience point reward towards his Prudhomme Reputation.

Riding at the head of a company earns 1 experience point.
Extracting ransom from a well-matched opponent earns 1 experience points.
Performing a feat of daring (as adjudicated by the troupe) earns 1 experience point.
Performing a feat of unquestionable honor earns 1 experience point.
Extracting ransom from a stronger opponent earns 2 experience points.
Being awarded a prize at tournament earns 2 experience points.

Company Reputations

Deeds done while under the banner of a company also feed that company's Reputation. Companies have a Reputation named after its leader or chant, which applies only within the tournament circuit.

To gain the benefit of a company Reputation, a knight must travel under the colors of that company or be otherwise identified as a member (by using the company motto, for instance).

Story Seed: The Mantle is Passed

An elderly knight is looking for a way to see his colors ride onto the field of tourney once more and one of the grogs is surprisingly willing to help. Armed in the old knight's armor, riding his horse, and carrying his sword, lance, and shield, the grog finds himself invincible in the melee. He has claimed ransom after ransom and not lost a single contest. But the assembled knights are suspicious and claim witchcraft is afoot. Can the magi extract their increasingly determined grog from the tournament and free him from the old knight's curse?

Patronage

Those hosting tournaments gain experience points towards their Prudhomme Reputation. If multiple patrons work together to host tournaments in any given season, all experience points are divided equally between them.

Hosting one or more tournaments in a season earns 1 experience point, or 2 if the event is particularly lavish.
Commissioning an artist to record the event awards 1 additional experience point (see Art & Academe, page 123) if the work's aesthetic quality is at least equal to the sponsor's Prudhomme Reputation.

Tournaments as Income

Labor Points (see City & Guild, page 38) describe how tradesmen, laborers, and merchants develop their business. The same rules can be applied to knights, as many make their living from the tournament circuit rather than drawing income from a fief.

It costs 36 Labor Points per year for an errant knight to sustain himself. The knight gains Dexterity + Single/Great Weapon Labor Points per season on the tourney circuit. The figure is multiplied by two if the character is Poor, by three if the character is average, and by six if the character is Wealthy. This means that an errant knight must tourney for a number of seasons a year determined by his wealth. Knights with the Poor flaw must tourney for three seasons a year, an average character for two, and a Wealthy character for one.

Labor Points from Stories

Characters can gain additional Labor Points from stories involving tournaments. For a craftsman, this might mean a knight in need of armor before dawn, a bullying merchant, or a faerie apprentice with a rare gift seeking out a master craftsman for their own ends. For knights, awards have a value in seasons, with a season being equal to the character's (Dexterity + Single/Great Weapon) x Wealth Multiplier. As a guideline, stories bestow half a season's Labor Points if they are a subplot of a wider story, bestow a season's worth of Labor Points if the character faces severe danger or hardship in resolving the subplot, and bestow even more as the character's risk and involvement in the story increase.

William Marshal

In 1220 the memory of William Marshal is still alive, and he is held up as an example of a great knight. Much of William's reputation was earned on the tournament fields, but while he died a wealthy and influential man, his birth gave him few advantages.
Inheriting nothing from his father, William spent most of his childhood in the household of his father's cousin, William de Tancarville, an influential Norman noble. Tancarville introduced him to the tournament where he developed not only his fighting prowess but also his tenacity, resolve, and social connections. Despite early setbacks resulting in poverty, he won ransom after ransom on the field and was soon charged by Henry II of England to tutor his son Henry the Young King.
Though rewarded generously by the Young King, William's ambition got the better of him and he was soon tourneying under his own banner. The promise of even greater wealth lured him to the side of Count Philip of Flanders.
But while William's loyalty on the tournament circuit was for sale, his loyalty to successive kings of England never wavered. (He served Henry II, his son Henry the Young King, Richard, and John before becoming regent for Henry III.). He was rewarded with earldoms, a fruitful dynastic marriage, and huge wealth and political influence.
So powerful was William Marshal, Earl of Pembrokeshire, that he was elected regent to Henry III on the death of John in 1216. And at the age of 70 in 1217, he personally led the fighting in the relief of Lincoln, which led to the expulsion of Louis of France from English shores. William died two years later in 1219.
William Marshal's story is one to which every knight entering the tournament aspires.

For simplicity it is assumed that any seasons spent at tourney have a balance of wins, losses, and prizes to ensure the character gains the Labor Points he requires to maintain his living. Characters may spend any surplus Labor Points towards increasing their financial and social status as described in City & Guild, page 38.

Awards

Winning awards at tournament is a matter of drawing attention to one's feats and accomplishments. When a character increases his Prudhomme Reputation he comes to the notice of the patron. Martial achievements are certainly rewarded, but so too are great noblesse and generosity.

Storyguides might also want to present specific challenges of talent and resolve that, if passed, show a character's worth. These should be tailored to the player characters involved in the tournament. The actual awarding of prizes is determined by storyguide fiat, with the patron's character taken into account and the efforts of the troupe in drawing attention to their characters also noted.

The value of a prize should be in keeping with the Reputation of its beneficiary. Storyguides should consider one Mythic Pound per point of Prudhomme Reputation as a baseline.

Money in Ars Magica: A Recap

Ars Magica has two compatible systems for measuring wealth: a simple system for troupes who do not like to spend too much time considering money, and a system based on tracking the approximate values of goods and services in Mythic Pounds.

The Simple System, From the Core Rulebook

In the simple system a character's level of wealth is an effect of social status, modified by Virtues and Flaws like Wealthy or Poor. In Mythic Europe, a knight who holds at least a single manor has the Social Status Virtue Landed Noble, for example. A character with an area of land so large that it requires infeudation to be run effectively has the Social Status Virtue Great Noble. In this system a character is wealthy or poor compared only to other people of the same social class; a wealthy peasant is less rich than a poor king.
Most manorial lords cannot meet their basic expenses in difficult times without patronage from their lords, or by finding supplemental income through raiding or banditry. That lords are perpetually short of money does not grant them the Poor Flaw. Their precarious financial situation is, rather, the average for their social class. A manorial lord is only poor if disaster has already struck and his social status is at risk. Wealthy manorial lords have sources of income beyond a basic manor. These may include additional land, or the right to collect sources of income usually reserved for greater nobles, like river tolls or port duties.
In the simple system, fiefs increase in value only as a reward for stories. This reward may be directly related to the story, or might have no obvious link within the game setting, but be agreed as a reward by the troupe.
Many people in Mythic Europe believe that the bounty of all land is arises — or fails to — through the grace God. This, to them, explains why the croplands of tyrants produce only lean harvests, and why during periods of anarchy, starvation is so widespread. Conversely, the reign of wise and just kings is rewarded with bountiful crops. This idea is not generally used Ars Magica but it provides a rationale for troupes who wish to reward characters for completing great tasks by improving the value of their land.

The Mythic Pound System, From Covenants

In this system, published initially in Covenants, players keep records using Mythic Pounds. These are units of account based on the value of a pound of silver (rather than coins that the characters spend). The prices of goods and services are estimated so troupes have approximate figures from which to work. Each Mythic Pound can be divided into 20 shillings or 240 pence. Actual coins that characters can spend are almost always silver pennies. In brief, a manor's traditional sources of income equal 20 pounds, and a knight's expenses are a similar amount. If a covenant has a manor and does not owe knight-service on it, then it is a lesser income source.
The expenses of a knight may be calculated using the system given in Covenants, and the rules there may be used to tweak the fief's budget. (Those rules measure inhabitants in points, with each point requiring one pound of expenditure.) The manor's inhabitants are considered to be the knight himself (3 points), his family (aggregated as 3 points), his reeve or steward (2 points), his squire (2t points), a couple of veteran men at arms (4 points), and his horses (2 points). He tithes two pounds per year. This leaves two pounds per year surplus that is considered to cover exceptional expenses like scutage, new horses, and repairing buildings that burn down. The lord has other staff, but they are paid in rights to land rather than from his income. These include the priest, miller, baker and, in many places, the shepherd, swineherd, and reeve.
For a character to become wealthy from land he needs more than one manor, preferably without a corresponding debt of additional knight service. Players who do not wish to consider the numbers too deeply should assume that a knight makes ten pounds each year for each manor that does not owe knight service. If knight service is owed, it might be paid out in scutage (a fine paid in lieu of service), which costs up to three pounds per year, met by hiring a mercenary knight, which costs two pounds, or met by sending a knight of the lord's mesnie. Mesnie knights cost about five pounds per year to maintain at a basic standard of chivalric living, but many lords pay much more as largesse.
The average fief in England in 1220 contains five manors. Most of these manors are held by relatives or vassals of the lord. Knights are expected to live slightly beyond their income, regardless of how much that actually is, so even those with additional manors are usually chronically cash-poor, live on credit, and are dependent on the largesse of their lords. Many lords like things this way. This is discussed further in Chapter Two: Politics.
As the 13th century unfolds, unless the player characters do something to radically change society, many knightly families will slip into the wealthier part of the freeman class. Single manors will become increasingly rare as land consolidates in the hands of noblemen and the Church, both of which generally prefer to give their knights cash fiefs.

Attribution Based on the material for Ars Magica, ©1993-2024, licensed by Trident, Inc. d/b/a Atlas Games®, under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license 4.0 ("CC-BY-SA 4.0"). Ars Magica Open License Logo ©2024 Trident, Inc. The Ars Magica Open License Logo, Ars Magica, and Mythic Europe are trademarks of Trident, Inc., and are used with permission. Order of Hermes, Tremere, Doissetep, and Grimgroth are trademarks of Paradox Interactive AB and are used with permission.

Open License Markdown version by applejuice1965 & OriginalMadman, https://github.com/OriginalMadman/Ars-Magica-Open-License

See Also

Chapter Five: Leisure

Pets

Some Unusual Pets

Magpie

Monkey

Squirrel

Outdoor Pursuits

Board Games

Story Seed: Chess Partners

Gambling

A Game of Chance?

Good Drink, Song, and Dance

Story Seed: The New Dance

The Feast

Preparing the Feast

Story Seed: Rats in the Kitchens

The Noble Diet

Story Seed: Damsel's Tresses

Story Seed: The Silent Damsel

Seating the Guests, and Good Manners

Story Seed: Village Politics

Time to Eat

The Host

The Hunt

Varieties of Hunting Hounds

Hunting Dogs

Lymer

Combat:

Alaunt

Greyhound

Running Dog

Combat:

Mastiff

Hounds and Aging

Taming Creatures

Hunting with Hounds

The Quest

Story Seed: Poachers

The Assembly

The Relay

The Finding

The Chase

The Kill

The Unmaking and Curee

Bow and Stable Hunting

The Terrain Bonus

The Relay

The Hunters

Story Seed: Errant Arrow

Hunting Stories

The Prey

Horses

The Types of Horses

Horses

Noble Warhorse (Destrier)

Warhorse (Courser or Rouncey)

Riding Horse (Palfrey or Jennet)

Draught Horse (Hackney)

Working Pony (Fell or Icelandic)

The Care of Horses

Horses and Aging

A Note on Size and Capacity

Hawking

Birds and Aging

Some Typical Prey Animals

Running an Establishment

Story Seed: The Vanishing Hawk

Hawks and Falcons

Gyrfalcon (Falco)

The Kennels

The Mews

The Stables

Kennels, Mews, and Stables Tables

Kennels

Mews

Stables

Living Conditions and Specialists

New Virtues

Master of Kennels