Goto [ Index ]

A covenant is a group of magi who have a durable alliance. It is also the place where these magi live, and all the other people who live with them.

The covenant is the single most important concept in Ars Magica, still incredibly original. It's a metacharacter, and almost all Sagas (campaigns) tell the story of a covenant. Magi can come and leave, companions may become old and die, but the covenant will remain there, growing and eventually decaying.

The concept was first developed in a 1990 Second Edition book written by Mark Rein·Hagen and published by Lion Rampant. It's one of the two fundamental Ars Magica books, the other one being Jonathan Tweet's The Order of Hermes. This Second Edition manual is the one I'm reviewing now, not Fifth Edition's Covenants, which share its name but it's a completely different book.

Contents

The book starts with two basic sentences: “There is more to life than exploring ruins, solving mysteries, and roaming the world. There is always home to return to as well”. In two pages, Rein·Hagen defines the covenant and justifies its importance: “The covenant provides a central point for a Saga, allowing the players to focus their ambitions and desires on something besides their own characters and making it a central element of the Saga. Everything in the Saga revolves around the covenant, just as the sun (in the medieval paradigm) revolves around the earth, and outside elements are important only in as much as they affect the covenant. You will find that the desires to improve your covenant and increase its reputation in the Order of Hermes become the primary goals of the characters, rather than self aggrandizement”.

Maybe Rein·Hagen thought that the 1990 readers would be skeptical, because he keeps defending this new concept, even if it needs an extra effort: “Why go to all this work developing a covenant? Like I said above, because it provides a solid foundation for all your stories. It also provides a vehicle for the ambitions of the troupe to be directed into, and the covenant is a kind of 'super character' for everyone to identify with”.

Four Seasons (5 pages)

Covenants have a life cycle, exactly like all human institutions. All covenants begin in Spring. They're young, inexperienced and usually chaotic. Gathering power and resources, they manage to move to Summer, the most vital season. Autumn is both the power peak and the beginning of the decline, because it's so great that it doesn't grow anymore. Winter is the last stage, when the covenant is decaying and has lost all its influence and maybe sanity.

This chapter defines the four seasons and explains how are the typical covenants in each stage, giving also advice to start a Saga. There's also a nice side box about rites of entrance.

Covenant Attributes (27 pages)

Time to start with the covenant creation rules. All covenants have many attributes, which are similar to virtues and flaws. The players have to read every chapter and decide the value of every attribute. The total points to spend depend on the covenant's season. For example, a Spring covenant will have 13 negative and 9 positive points, and an Autumn one will have 9 negative and 21 positive. Covenants also have four characteristics: defense, watch, contacts and morale. Many attributes change their numerical value.

The main attribute groups are: setting, fortress, inhabitants, outside world, mystical attributes, mundane resources and obligations. All of them have more specific features with plenty options to choose. For example, when you go to the setting chapter you must decide the covenant's location and magic aura, and discuss other details. Then there are thirteen possible locations, including in a swamp (-2), on a hilltop (+1) or on top (or maybe in the side) of a cliff (+2).

All attributes and options are greatly defined and described. All groups have a “0” option, which is simply “average” and adequate for most Sagas. Therefore the players just have to decide in which areas will their covenant be special, and choose a positive or negative value there.

The Covenant in Play (4 pages)

Mark Rein·Hagen advises us that the players should be cooperative and avoid clashes that may endanger the covenant or the whole Saga. “Intense rivalries also tend to sour friendships between players and act to destroy the unity of the troupe”.

This chapter sadly doesn't describe the covenant's daily life, but discusses how to improve it, has tables of political, mystical and hermetic incidents and, best of all, includes the Charter of the Covenant of Mistridge.

Example Covenants (17 pages)

The book finally describes, using the rules above, four covenants located in the Provençal Tribunal. They all have nice story ideas.

Lariander is an anarchic Spring covenant inside a faerie forest, with struggling magi and demoralized grogs. Next comes Bellaquin, a Summer covenant deeply involved in the mundane world, with nobility ties and a great interest in culture. Doissetep is the ultimate Autumn covenant, incredibly powerful and filled with secrets. Finally there is Val-Negra, a decaying covenant full of mad magi and deformed servants.

Conclusions

Not surprisingly, 18 years later it's still an amazing book. The Fifth Edition covenant creation system is completely different, but Covenants includes hundreds of interesting ideas and story seeds, and the four example covenants are really great. Plus, we can read one of the industry's most important names developing a new and original concept.

There is one question, though. This is a 1990 book, and for many years Ars Magica players have demonstrated that having a metacharacter works, and it's a great improvement to many campaigns. So why no other game has adopted the concept and further developed it? Is it still too innovative?

Help support RPGnet by purchasing this item through DriveThruRPG.