Canonical Setting Information
Canonical Setting Information
This is the official thread for information on what's going on in the world - this is the more or less static stuff, not the ongoing events. For now, this is a GM-only thread (me). In the future, once the baseline setting is established, it will be open for you to add to as you encounter things you want to document.
Re: Canonical Setting Information
This is the map of the region of the game--it's not huge, only about fifty miles wide or so. But it's plenty of territory to start with for a game during the thirteenth century, where you really need to operate from a home base. The major settlements are marked on the map. Note that this is taken from Google Earth, so it has details of current-day roads and such--remember that in 1200 or so, the infrastructure was a lot weaker.
- ARS MAGICA MAP.jpg (787.15 KiB) Viewed 1121 times
Re: Canonical Setting Information
The Covenant:
The as-yet-unnamed Covenant is located high in the mountains almost exactly on the present-day border between Germany and Austria. The Covenant itself is just a small cluster of buildings, like a very small village, perched on a small plateau of land and overshadowed by the massive peaks and ridgeline of the Glasfelderkopf (Icefield-Top) and Fuchskarspitze that circle the plateau on the west.
Here are the peaks and ridge seen from the west--thus the plateau containing the Covenant is obscured and below camera height beyond the mountains.
This is a big image--be warned:
You can get a look at the area indirectly in the photo below--it is at bottom behind the tree on the left.
At the base of this valley, in the northeast, a handful of small streams running off the mountains converge to form a small, steep-sided pool that sits at the edge of a forty-foot drop into a larger pool. Travelers, including members of the Covenant, have worked a path of steps that weave back and forth down the rock face to the pool at the bottom, and a path continues from there along the side of the stream as the valley quickly descends toward a cart-path and eventually a road leading to Reutte, the nearest major settlement about six miles distant. Along the way are a handful of small farms, mostly with a scattering of high-pasture cattle and goats for making cheese, though some resilient crops and wheat are also grown to help sustain the small local population.
The Covenant itself, in 1209 when the Saga begins, consists of a small cluster of buildings in the middle of the plateau. A bricklike stone building of two stories serves as quarters for the magi and their work, while several rough-cut wood buildings with peaked rooves housing the covenfolk sit nearby but at a respectful distance closer to the base of the plateau.
At present, the inhabitants of the Coven have nothing that sustains them but a reasonable supply of silver that they have used to get their structures built and provide food stores for the year. Those resources are, however, running low, and it is advisable that the Covenant either find a steady supply of money somehow or establish the infrastructure necessary to satisfy their own food needs. The Covenant has been in place for about one season when our Saga begins, at the first of summer.
The as-yet-unnamed Covenant is located high in the mountains almost exactly on the present-day border between Germany and Austria. The Covenant itself is just a small cluster of buildings, like a very small village, perched on a small plateau of land and overshadowed by the massive peaks and ridgeline of the Glasfelderkopf (Icefield-Top) and Fuchskarspitze that circle the plateau on the west.
Here are the peaks and ridge seen from the west--thus the plateau containing the Covenant is obscured and below camera height beyond the mountains.
This is a big image--be warned:
At the base of this valley, in the northeast, a handful of small streams running off the mountains converge to form a small, steep-sided pool that sits at the edge of a forty-foot drop into a larger pool. Travelers, including members of the Covenant, have worked a path of steps that weave back and forth down the rock face to the pool at the bottom, and a path continues from there along the side of the stream as the valley quickly descends toward a cart-path and eventually a road leading to Reutte, the nearest major settlement about six miles distant. Along the way are a handful of small farms, mostly with a scattering of high-pasture cattle and goats for making cheese, though some resilient crops and wheat are also grown to help sustain the small local population.
The Covenant itself, in 1209 when the Saga begins, consists of a small cluster of buildings in the middle of the plateau. A bricklike stone building of two stories serves as quarters for the magi and their work, while several rough-cut wood buildings with peaked rooves housing the covenfolk sit nearby but at a respectful distance closer to the base of the plateau.
At present, the inhabitants of the Coven have nothing that sustains them but a reasonable supply of silver that they have used to get their structures built and provide food stores for the year. Those resources are, however, running low, and it is advisable that the Covenant either find a steady supply of money somehow or establish the infrastructure necessary to satisfy their own food needs. The Covenant has been in place for about one season when our Saga begins, at the first of summer.
Re: Canonical Setting Information
Saint Gallenkirch:
This small town is heavily fortified and built across a major pass in the southern part of the region. The centerpiece of the town is a massive abbey dedicated to Saint Gallen, a companion of Saint Patrick in his travels to Albion and beyond, who returned to found a hermitage in the alps in the early 9th century.
The settlement grew when a band of Templars, having returned from the Holy Land in the early 11th century, took control of the religious and secular activities of the abbey as the unsanctioned Benedictine Order of Ludovico. They grew the political influence of the trade crossing and the military control over a large region of the mountains until they allied with Phillip of Swabia against Otto IV in the succession struggle for the Holy Roman Empire that dominated the end of the 12th century.
When Bohemian forces loyal to Otto finally broke the defenses of Saint Gallenskirch in order to lend their aid to the fight in the lowlands, they discovered within the abbey signs of centuries of diabolism and heresy, with the result that the Order of Ludovico was extinguished and all members excommunicated, with those captured in the siege out immediately to the torch.
Since that time, less than two decades past, a pall has hung over the small fortified town, though the new abbot has done much to restore connections with the court of Innocent II.
This small town is heavily fortified and built across a major pass in the southern part of the region. The centerpiece of the town is a massive abbey dedicated to Saint Gallen, a companion of Saint Patrick in his travels to Albion and beyond, who returned to found a hermitage in the alps in the early 9th century.
The settlement grew when a band of Templars, having returned from the Holy Land in the early 11th century, took control of the religious and secular activities of the abbey as the unsanctioned Benedictine Order of Ludovico. They grew the political influence of the trade crossing and the military control over a large region of the mountains until they allied with Phillip of Swabia against Otto IV in the succession struggle for the Holy Roman Empire that dominated the end of the 12th century.
When Bohemian forces loyal to Otto finally broke the defenses of Saint Gallenskirch in order to lend their aid to the fight in the lowlands, they discovered within the abbey signs of centuries of diabolism and heresy, with the result that the Order of Ludovico was extinguished and all members excommunicated, with those captured in the siege out immediately to the torch.
Since that time, less than two decades past, a pall has hung over the small fortified town, though the new abbot has done much to restore connections with the court of Innocent II.
Re: Canonical Setting Information
Lorelei and the River-Daughters:
This is adapted from Wagner's Rhein-Maidens and likely mythological sources for them--
In the many lakelets and streams that drive through the valleys between Feldkirch and Seefeld, there are stories: of young maidens inexplicably trapped on slick or difficult-to-reach stones; or drowning, crying out for help from passing fishermen or travelers. These apparitions are real, but not as mundane as they sound.
A small court of capricious and seductive Fae makes its home in these regions, and members of that group present themselves to passers-b (primarily male) in order to lure them to their deaths.
Chief among these seductresses is Lorelei, reputed to be the immortal spirit of a woman who drowned herself out of spite toward a faithless lover.
Members of House Merinitia who have traveled the area claim that Lorelei and her coterie are not necessarily dangerous, but are unable to explain why: to do so, they claim, would reveal too much of the Mystery of their House.
Regardless, rumors abound about the group, including persistent claims of a powerful Regio in the area in which is housed a lode of faerie gold of uncanny properties.
This is adapted from Wagner's Rhein-Maidens and likely mythological sources for them--
In the many lakelets and streams that drive through the valleys between Feldkirch and Seefeld, there are stories: of young maidens inexplicably trapped on slick or difficult-to-reach stones; or drowning, crying out for help from passing fishermen or travelers. These apparitions are real, but not as mundane as they sound.
A small court of capricious and seductive Fae makes its home in these regions, and members of that group present themselves to passers-b (primarily male) in order to lure them to their deaths.
Chief among these seductresses is Lorelei, reputed to be the immortal spirit of a woman who drowned herself out of spite toward a faithless lover.
Members of House Merinitia who have traveled the area claim that Lorelei and her coterie are not necessarily dangerous, but are unable to explain why: to do so, they claim, would reveal too much of the Mystery of their House.
Regardless, rumors abound about the group, including persistent claims of a powerful Regio in the area in which is housed a lode of faerie gold of uncanny properties.