The Dragon and the Bear Chapter Seven: Saga

This chapter describes directions you might want to take your own saga. It will obviously be of the greatest use to sagas actually set in the Novgorod tribunal, but sagas set in other tribunals might use the following information just as easily.

The Novgorod Tribunal

Obviously, the tribunal is facing hard times. Can the Order ever be reconciled with mundane society, or any sort of society at all? Is the experiment at Thousand Caves the way forward, or is it a dangerous folly?

In many parts of north and western Russia and throughout Poland, land development will be a constant. Mongol invasions will drive refugees from Kiev, Pereyaslavl, and Chernigov west, while German colonization will push east. Poland is set to make a major advance in terms of population, technology, and administration, and the Order will find it harder to hide from mundanes.

In Russia the times are set for ruin. The prophecy of the mad magus Yannes Kolski is about to yield its first dreadful fruits. Manifestations of the terrible invasions in Arcadia are beginning to appear in the real world: lambs born with two heads, walls sweating blood, hauntings, and ghostly processions. Such signs may well become more and more frequent as the years pass.

As the Order and the tribunal bicker internally, what can be done to avert the coming storm? What are the possible avenues to salvation?

The first possibility is unification of the Russian principalities. If the tribunal is convinced of the danger, they might make an attempt to bring the Russian princes together. We invite you to consider for yourself the difficulties of such a course, especially for the Novgorod Tribunal, where one cardinal rule is stressed: no involvement with the houses of Rurik or Piast!

Flight is another option. The faerie realm might offer a sanctuary. Can Houses Merinita and Bjornaer thread the maze of Faerie and take their people through to a promised land? Or will they be forced to flee into destitution as refugees in western Europe?

Finally, a policy of endurance could work. The Mongols, some will argue, can be tolerated. They are merely the latest in a long sequence of barbarian invaders. Thirty years will see them done with. Can a covenant survive under the Mongol yoke? Only by offering swift and complete submission will they even be permitted to try. And then, of course, they will be placed under the supervision of the Mongol Shamans, deprived of vis, their laboratories opened to investigation, and their texts confiscated.

Your Covenant

Where does your covenant fit into this tangled web of intrigue, conflict, and invasion? As a first step, ask yourself how your covenant relates to each of the four established covenants of the tribunal; this will help you align yourself within the major power struggles. At the same time, your covenant’s involvement with each of the other covenants opens possibilities for adven ture. Here are some possible positions, and story ideas you might like to try out.

Three Lakes

Support: You support Three Lakes, broadly speaking. You strive to uphold their general policies, within the boundaries of your own particular aims. Consequently you may be called upon to assist Three Lakes magi, or even to support a group of traveling quaesitores on an official mission for the tribunal. This is a privilege, but also a responsibility, and possibly a burden. In return, Three Lakes is ready to offer you advice, and sometimes more concrete aid.

Oppose: Three Lakes, as far as you’re concerned, has got it wrong. Perhaps they are foolish to deny other tribunals the right to move into Slavic lands (your position: the tribunal needs new blood), perhaps their restrictions on meeting Slavic royalty is futile or stupid (your position: the tribunal must integrate with the nobility), or perhaps you simply resent their dominance and the threat of interference (your position: you didn’t found your own covenant just to be told what to do by another bunch of magi!).

Story Suggestions: The current situation gives you the opportunity to help or to hinder Three Lakes. Will you assist them in controlling the Thousand Caves controversy, or use it to damage them? An opportunity soon arises. A magus from another tribunal visits your covenant. He may be a friend, a casual acquaintance, or a complete stranger. Most likely he comes from Rhine, Transylvania, or Thebes. Your visitor drops hints about possible favors he could do you. He wants to trade, and seems especially interested in gossip about tribunal affairs. You could sell out Three Lakes quite easily, or strive to keep their affairs secret. Ultimately, of course, it is unlikely that your actions will remain secret. Whether you help or hinder, your behavior will sooner or later come home to haunt you. If you work to protect Three Lakes, your visitor may turn nasty, or take to more covert ways of extracting information. If you betray Three Lakes they will probably discover it eventually, and then you had better hope your new friends are strong enough to protect you!

Thousand Caves

Support: Thousand Caves is, in your opinion, undertaking one of the most radical, visionary tasks of any covenant in the Order. This, as you see it, is a real hope for the future and for the recreation of a magical society as vigorous and powerful as that of ancient, pagan Rome.

Oppose: Thousand Caves is blundering disastrously. Their project is wholly misconceived. Inevitably they are going to attract demons or other malign spiritual entities with their misguided “worship.” If not, then the whole project will simply fail, and in the meantime it is proving horribly divisive. Even in a best case situation, the tribunal is going to be hideously embarrassed if this matter comes out at Grand Tribunal, and you’re all going to lose prestige, independence, and probably territory as well.

Story Suggestion: Missionaries from Thousand Caves enter your area. They are preaching to the local villagers, demonstrating Hermetic magic and some peculiar effects that seem to straddle the line between Hermetic and Volkhv magic. The local Volkhvy may react positively or negatively to this situation. In any case, the visitors stir up the local populace and get them talking: about paganism, about magic, about you. Ultimately all of this fuss comes to the attention of the local clergy and nobility. Paganism is not to be tolerated, and the local powers move in swiftly to purge the area of malicious influences, possibly including you! How do you react? Will you support the missionaries, or seek to suppress them? Will you cooperate with the authorities, or try to mislead them? Do you believe in the new religion? Perhaps you will have an experience you cannot explain by normal methods; you yourself may end up being converted. Alternatively, what you see may convince you that the Thousand Caves magi are simply consorting with demonic entities and being granted malefic powers. A quick certámen might suffice to banish the interlopers from your district. If not, perhaps more direct methods will prove necessary.

Pripet Maior

Support: Pripet Maior is the true heart of the tribunal. Their attitudes toward encroaching mundanes are quite correct. They have every right to defend their land. Three Lakes, for one, has made a grievous error in getting so involved in mundane affairs. Further, Pripet Maior is a proper Bjornaer covenant, with the right priorities. The animals and the wilderness must come first!

Oppose: Pripet Maior is a disaster waiting to happen. Before much longer they are obviously going to antagonize the wrong people. It won’t be long before the mundanes march in, probably with the support of the Church. Their whole approach is wrong. They can’t expect to preserve their domain unchanged forever. They should be trying to enlist the local mundanes, not frighten them off. Pripet’s actions endanger the whole tribunal; everyone will suffer in the aftermath of their defeat.

Story Suggestion: Pripet Maior duly kicks off the war which everyone has been expecting. By stealing something or killing the wrong person, their magi inflame the local mundanes. A small army assembles on the edges of the marsh. While workers begin digging a drainage channel, the soldiers search for the “marsh warlocks.” Pripet now finds itself outmatched. Its magi can no longer cooperate effectively enough to defeat this attack. If the drainage channel is completed a considerable portion of the marsh near them will be destroyed. You become involved either because you are Pripet’s ally, because you see a chance to profit from the situation by selling Pripet your aid, because the tribunal (Three Lakes) asks you to step in and try to resolve the matter, or because you greedily anticipate Pripet’s fall and want to wait nearby and then swoop in to loot the covenant of vis and books after the mundanes finish off the magi. In any of these cases you will find yourself having to deal with Pripet’s irrational, angry, frightened old magi, as well as dodging, or bargaining with, boyars and clergy from Pinsk-Turov.

Regardless of your approach, you will find yourself suddenly facing a third factor. Crintera is not going to sit on the sidelines forever. Pripet is very important to them. If Pripet Maior is seriously threatened or destroyed, magi from Crintera will arrive very swiftly to lay claim to the legacy of the covenant (books, vis, enchanted items, laboratory equipment), and even to the territory of the marsh itself. Pripet has, after all, been the reason for Crintera’s support of the Novgorod Tribunal for centuries, and they will demand the right to dispose of its properties and very likely to re-found the covenant. The Crintera magi will be mature or elderly Bjornaer, probably former apprentices of the Pripet magi, with conservative attitudes and territorial feelings. If you already have a solution to the conflict you will have to talk fast to get them to go along with it. If they find you scavenging in the ruins or even just trying to take advantage, get ready for a fight. Also, don’t expect Three Lakes’ support in this matter; when it comes to Crintera, Three Lakes knows where the tribunal’s interests lie.

Leczyca

Support: Leczyca has the right idea when it comes to dealing with mundane society; form alliances that bring the nobility in on your side, and don’t give an inch if any other part of the Order tries to muscle in on your territory. Our own worst enemies are our own kind; it is other magi who know our weaknesses. Anyway, the western magi in general have been short-sighted and greedy. If they have a vis shortage, that’s their problem. The borders of the Novgorod tribunal were settled a long time ago and aren’t about to be changed now!

Oppose: Leczyca are the next best thing to turncoats. They’ve grown far too fond of their mundane allies, and opened themselves up to all kinds of exploitation. Their friends among the nobility won’t stand up for them if the church denounces them, and then where will they be? They’ve already alienated half the Order. Sooner or later the nobility or royalty of Poland will begin demanding magical assistance, and they’ll turn against Leczyca if they don’t get it. The covenant has become little more than a pawn in the scramble for Krakow.

Story Suggestion: Information comes to you about a battle in the Polish/German borderlands. Perhaps a wandering minstrel, merchant, spy of yours, or even a Redcap brings the news. From the descriptions it seems obvious to you that this fight between noble warbands was tilted in the Polish favor by magical intervention. Did Leczyca take a hand? They’ve already been disciplined once over such matters and had to pay a heavy vis fine. Whether you support or oppose Leczyca this is an opportunity. Perhaps you can squeeze some vis out of them as the price of your silence, or perhaps you had better do what you can to ensure the story doesn’t circulate more widely. If you send an agent into the area to investigate the matter, you may soon find yourself facing agents from the Rhine tribunal or possibly even magi from Durenmar eager to expose Leczyca’s illegal actions. Being Leczyca’s ally in this situation may be a considerable burden. It is quite possible that they have re-established themselves in the Polish royal courts and are unwilling to disengage; probably they will expect your support.

The Sixth Covenant

When all is said and done, you have no overwhelming need to get closely involved with the other major covenants of the tribunal. It is possible to establish yourself in an area so distant from other covenants that you have very little contact with them. Taking this option allows you to devote yourself to your own concerns, and to involve yourself in cooperation or rivalry with Novgorod’s sixth covenant. The sixth covenant offers you the opportunity to create an ally or enemy, or perhaps to re-balance the political weight and factions within the tribunal. Do you think the tribunal needs another Bjornaer covenant? A special tie to the church? To the nobility? Perhaps a group of Ex Miscellanea magi have formed a partnership with the pagan Lapps, or the Cuman Shamans. There might be a covenant in the Crimea, technically Novgorodian but heavily involved in the Theban tribunal, or on one of the Baltic islands where it serves as a meeting place with the mysterious Order of Odin. The choice is yours.