Season

Ars Magica uses the term Season to refer to two game concepts: a) a developmental stage of a covenant or character, and b) a period of time lasting three months.

Developmental Stage

Ars Magica describes the long-term development of a Covenant through the metaphor of seasons. This is one of the oldest concepts in Ars Magica, going back to 2nd edition and the Four Seasons tetralogy. Covenants (Second Edition) first explained the season metaphor for player-covenants.

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

Season is explicitly used for characters from the Magic Realm, which all have an attached Season. The chosen Season reflects the character's relative age, power level, maturity, and outlook.

Season has even been used to describe entire Tribunals, so that a Tribunal which is newly formed, beset by external threats, and still figuring out its customs (such as a theoretical Lotharingian Tribunal) could be said to be in Spring, while a mature Tribunal concerned with politics, putting off its decline, and preserving its own power (such as the Rhine) could be described as in its Autumn.

The Four Seasons

Spring

Spring covenants are young, weak, and threatened by external forces. But their members are brave, curious, and full of energy, to the point of seeming frenetic or even manic. This is because they have to be: Spring covenants are fighting for their very survival, working hard to establish themselves as a safe haven and to gain the resources necessary for serious studies of the Hermetic Arts. Magi need months of uninterrupted studies to improve themselves. To achieve this, the basics (such as food, a place to live, and the right to live there) must be secured, as must suitable material (namely books and vis) for studies.

Although a Spring covenant is forced to respond to threats from outside, and forced to go beyond its own established sphere of influence in order to lay the groundwork for growth, its stories are often internal. The magi must address a long list of internal issues, including:

• How will the covenant be governed?
• What will be its sources of mundane income?
• Where does it get its vis (and how much vis can each magus expect to have?)
• What is the covenant's relations with the mundane authorities, including a lord and the church?

Much time can be spent in a saga resolving these questions. At the same time, a saga is not obliged to spend a lot of game time on things like a mundane income, the details of its charter, and mundane politics, if the troupe is not interested in such stories. There are so many issues to address in a Spring saga that, to address all of them, the game itself can slow to a crawl. Successful spring sagas prioritize stories, so that the troupe plays through the stories everyone wants to tell, while the rest are relegated to summary and exposition on the part of the storyguide.

Many covenants, and sagas, never successfully emerge from Spring. Covenants are overwhelmed by outside enemies, fail to find stable sources of vis or mundane wealth, or cannot agree on their own governance. They can fall apart in the face of mundane authorities, Hermetic politics, or even meddlesome fairies. But if they can find internal stability, acquire plentiful resources, reach a point of equilibrium with external groups (mundane authorities, rival covenants), the covenant makes the transition into Summer.

Sample stories include: Someone disputes the the covenant's right to a source of income, or demands payment of taxes/tribute/rent for the location of the covenant buildings. Magi from other covenants test the magi to see how far they are willing to go to keep their meager resources, be they gold or Vis. Stories about Hermetic politics tend to center around a rival, older covenant taking advantage of the spring covenant (which must then be fought off politically) or offering the spring covenant bargains they will live to regret, be it resources they need in return for their votes on a particular subject, or offers to support the older covenant politically in return for future favors - or more vis/tractatii than they really feel they can afford. The adventure A Midsummer Night's Dream details a covenant's transition from the youthful weakness of Spring to the healthy strength of Summer.

Examples of Spring covenants include Semita Errabunda (Atlas Games' "Living Covenant") and Collem Leonis and the Covenant of the Northern Seas (both found in Through the Aegis: Developed Covenants).

Summer

Summer covenants have what the magi need to pursue their interests. The magi are no longer fresh out of Gauntlet, and begin to acquire the things associated with mature magi: talismans, familiars, and ultimately apprentices. The covenant has stable relationships with mundane authority and, when it deals with Hermetic rivals, it can do so from a position of relative equality. At the same time, the covenant is still growing.

The Summer of a covenant's life can be both introspective and outward-facing by turns. The most direct and pressing needs are taken care of. While magi of a Spring covenant are often obliged to personally handle the day to day business of the covenant, magi of a Summer covenant can assume that day-to-day needs aren't going to require their personal attention. Instead, the magi turn their attention away from mere survival to self-discovery, personal growth, or outward expansion.

This is also the time for magi and covenants concerned with power to expand -- Arts are still low enough that progress is fast, there is a surplus of wealth to aquire new books, and there is enough vis to create enchanted items. Summer is often the time for grand projects: once a Spring covenant has established itself and entered Summer, the magi can direct their efforts towards distinguishing themselves from other covenants in the Tribunal, giving their home a distinctive character.

Many covenants seek to preserve their Summer for as long as possible. This is a phase of growth, comfort, vitality and expansion. A Summer covenant has not yet entered the period of decline associated with Autumn: it tries to avoid making enemies and getting involved in politics, and it brings in new blood in the form of apprentices and familiars. It continues to search for new sources of vis, it expands its library, and its mundane wealth continues to increase.

Sample stories include: You may for the first time have the leisure to realize that your fellow covenant member is a repulsive manipulative toad of a person, despite his fair exterior, and that while you needed him during spring, perhaps you are less than happy to spend the rest of your life within reach of his coils. Perhaps the difference is simply one of vision -- how is this covenant best led?Perhaps the Jerbiton magus studies Finesse for a few years in order to become a sculptor of the highest order. Perhaps the Trianomite starts visiting every covenant in the Tribunal (or in the entire Order!) to find allies and tie the Order together. Covenants that reach Summer are powerful enough to be proud, and thus often attract Infernal attention. The Tempest is an Ars Magica adventure explicitly addressing a covenant's transition from Summer to Autumn.

Example Summer covenants include the covenant of Jardin in the Provençal Tribunal, described in Through the Aegis: Developed Covenants.

Autumn

An Autumn covenant has grown both large and powerful, and it dominates its neighbors. But in the process it has accumulated many enemies, it is entangled in political alliances and rivalries, and houses rival factions within its own walls. Autumn covenants are often distinguished by housing multiple generations of magi: the elder magi are still healthy and at the summit of their power, so they run things for their own benefit while younger magi (usually the former apprentices of elder magi) chafe at their lack of autonomy and access to resources (especially books and vis). Autumn covenants appear to be strong and growing, but in fact their decline is visible beneath the surface.

Many magi, frustrated by the slow pace at which their already-high Arts can further advance, throw themselves into politics at this stage. Alternately, they use their high Arts to seek Archmage status, invent extremely potent spells that are out of reach of common magi, or initiate into greater mysteries.

At first, an Autumn covenant denies its in Autumn; its members prefer to believe they are in a long and extended Summer. Once they acknowledge their Autumn status, however, they try to prolong it as long as possible. Autumn covenants have fantastic wealth, the elder magi have every comfort and their every wish is a command. But eventually the vis sources start to dry up, the enchanted items break or are misplaced, Longevity Rituals fail and magi slip into longer and longer Twilight. Younger magi train apprentices of their own, and their factions become more numerous and vocal than the elders. Magi and custos leave, alienated in their personal relationships. The covenant's internal struggles become known to outsiders, who sense weakness. Payments of tribute stop. The mundane lord is not as deferential as he used to be. The legend of the magi has become greater than the truth. The covenant has slid into Winter.

Example stories: Autumn stories which deal with external relations are similar to those of Spring, but from the reverse perspective: the Autumn covenant is now the power-broker, manipulating younger and weaker covenants for its own ends. But it is also obliged to use its power and influence on behalf of allies who depend on the covenant. It's surviving Hermetic rivals are Autumn covenants too, with many forms of power and influence to use in complex schemes against the magi. At the same time, internal dissension and factionalization threaten to undermine the covenant, if not destroy it. Younger magi resent the dominance of their elders and, if allowed onto the council, try to change longstanding policies put in place by the elder magi. Aging custos and specialists make the covenant fragile; the death of an important mundane can disrupt decades of smooth operations. Many Autumn stories spring from fear: Fear of death and the loss of control -- to many Autumn magi, one and the same thing. A Winter's Tale is an adventure detailing the transition of a covenant from Autumn to Winter.

Sample Autumn covenants include the Oracles of Didyma, a Theban covenant described in Through the Aegis: Developed Covenants.

Winter

Winter covenants are in internal and external decline. The magi are old and threatened with long bouts of Twilight; covenfolk are Warped, dead, or decrepit. Even the physical structure of the covenant is declining; it may be falling apart, Warped by long exposure to a high aura, or so vast and labyrinthine that none of the surviving magi know all its secrets. Some vis sources have dried up, others have been seized by younger and more vigorous rivals. Books and enchanted items have been lost as magi leave or build new labs in remote locales, then slip into Twilight. Cherished apprentices have left for greener pastures, and no one has the energy to train new ones.

Magi refuse to admit their covenant is in Winter, but eventually the loss of prestige and reputation makes it obvious. The covenant turns in upon itself, isolating itself from external threats in an attempt to preserve what resources it has for as long as possible. Finally left alone, elder magi can have the chance to pursue long-term projects they were always too busy or distracted to get to, before. But will anyone care? Winter magi can finally become interested in their legacy, and spend the last decades of their cold, lonely, lives trying desperately to be remembered.

Sample stories: Winter sagas aren't popular, for reasons which the above paragraphs probably make clear: roleplaying games typically focus on success, not failure, and the life of a Winter covenant is one of failure. For this and other reasons, by far the most common story of a Winter covenant is the attempt by new, younger magi to turn it back to Spring. These stories of renewal are an obvious place for new sagas to begin; the "restore a Winter covenant to a new Spring" saga is the second most popular way to launch a new saga, after "newly-Gauntleted magi form a Spring covenant of their own." This form of saga offers several specific advantages: the magi don't need to build everything from the ground up, a process which can often be more tedious than fun; elder magi are there to give the PC magi tasks, but they are weak and few enough that they depend on the younger magi and must heed their wishes; the covenant has built-in mysteries which the PCs can explore. Twelfth Night is an adventure detailing a covenant's transition from Winter to a second Spring.

Example covenants include Longmist in the Hibernia Tribunal (found in Through the Aegis: Developed Covenants).

Time Period

Another use of the term "Season" is to describe a period of time in the game and in Mythic Europe. Each Season, in this sense, usually proceeds from one solstice/equinox to the next, defining the traditional four astrological seasons. Characters are advanced one season at a time, gaining experience, accomplishing deeds, and aging.

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

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

Opinion and Commentary

[add alternative considerations such as the argument against using the Season metaphor to describe covenants]

Other noted uses of the Winter Season in RPGs

Pendragon, or King Arthur Pendragon, an Arthurian fantasy RPG by Greg Stafford and published by Chaosium, uses the "Winter Phase" in its system to signify a period of the year where a player character knight attends to the matters of his or her estate and therefore isn't questing and adventuring.

References

• "Seasonal Characters" in Hermes Portal Issue 5

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