Greater Alps Tribunal

The Greater Alps Tribunal is at the heartland of the Order, a Regional Tribunal bordering the powerful and respected Rhine Tribunal and Roman Tribunal, as well as the Transylvanian and Normandy Tribunals. True to its name, the tribunal covers much of the highest Alps, north of Italy. See the Map of Mythic Europe.

Current Edition Resources

There is no canonical description of the Tribunal for Fifth Edition. However, the Fourth Edition description should largely still be applicable.

Current Edition Covenants

• The Cave of Twisting Shadows, the domus magna of House Criamon (though a more detailed and now-outdated description appears in the Fourth Edition Tribunal book, Sanctuary of Ice)
• Valnastium , the domus magna of House Jerbiton, which also appears in Sanctuary of Ice

Past Edition Resources

Sanctuary of Ice

In Fourth Edition, the Tribunal was described in the supplement Sanctuary of Ice (by Timothy Ferguson). It presented the Tribunal as steeped in Roman traditions and pride, and intentionally keeping the number of magi down. In addition to the two domus magnae, the Tribunal boasts four more covenants, and introduced the idea of a Chapter House.

Author Timothy Ferguson offered this advice on using the book for Ars Magica 5th edition: "The main difference is this: the Alps covenant were about as powerful as a covenant could get in ArM4, but in ArM5, they are relatively weak, because they have castles as point sinks, and because in the new rules the covenant's points are just what the player characters can use at the beginning, not the whole resources of the covenant. So, in terms of sheer scale, the covenants are a bit on the weak side. Books may have higher values, for example, and the sponsoring covenants may have a lot more material to loan or give to the chapter, depending on if that's what your players want."

Covenant of Tarragon Vale

Free PDF of the covenant of Tarragon Vale, excepted from Sanctuary of Ice

Order of Hermes

This out-of-print supplement has a half-page description of the Greater Alps Tribunal which is broadly consistent with the later supplement, Sanctuary of Ice. The Tribunal is described as unusually stable, full of very old, established covenants that conspire to keep new covenants from forming. It mentions Valnastium, the Cave of Twisting Shadows, and five other unnamed covenants.

Past Edition Covenants

Sanctuary of Ice describes the covenants of:

• The Cave of Twisting Shadows
• the Icy North
• Where Journeys End
• Sinews of Knowledge
• Tarragon Vale
• Valnastium

Greater Alps Sagas

The following Saga sites are set in, or otherwise related to, the Greater Alps Tribunal. Feel free to add your own site to the list; please insert it in alphabetical order.

Ad Astra Per Aspera

Welcome to Ad Astra, a covenant located in the duchy of Styria, in the eastern parts of the Holy Roman Empire. In March 1190 AD, the tribunal meeting hosted at the covenant Exedra Caeli, gave its permission to and agreed to support the foundation of a new covenant, situated on the ruins of an older covenant. The saga uses an alternate tribunal division, in which the Ad Astra covenant belongs to the tribunal of Bavaria.

HBO Ars Magica

HBO Ars Magica is a saga in its first season, during which the PCs are apprentices to seasoned magi in the Greater Alps. The game wiki includes 5th edition versions of various characters from Sanctuary of Ice.

Palimpsest

Covenant of Scopulus Incanus

Pax Studiorum

A spring covenant, mostly interested in the studies of magic, but caught between to traditional enenmies.

Rabenstein

The authoritative source for historical fiction in Medieval Austria. The Rabenstein web site centers on the young covenant of Rabenstein in the Duchy of Steiermark, providing many story seeds, house rules, characters and background information of value to all Ars Magica players. The Saga is set mostly in the Greater Alps, although Covenant Rabenstein itself is located in the Rhine tribunal. Rabenstein spawned the Sabratha Saga, set in Libya (Roman Tribunal), and now the new Corona Montis saga in the Stonehenge Tribunal.

Sanctuary Apocrypha

Material cut from Sanctuary of Ice, the Greater Alps Tribunal book.

Spear Peak

A Covenant in the Greater Alps where four young maagi are thrust into the maelstrom of Tribunal politics after the disappearence of the senior magi. Includes a description of the Hermetic landscape of the Greater Alps tribunal. - Eric Grove-Stephensen

References

Legacy Page

The history of this page before February 11, 2012 is located at Legacy:greater_alps_tribunal

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Based on material © Copyright David Chart 1997-2000. Used with permission.