Guardians of the Forest Chapter Ten: Bohemia

Irenciallia

Immutable in the depths of rivers,
In the eternal twilight of forests,
The spirits of the old days live on
— inscription above the gate to Irencillia

Irencillia, the domus magna of House Merinita, hidden deep in faerie woods, was founded when this area was wild and uncivilized. Due to the meddling of members of the covenant the area is still largely untouched, and Irencillia has a timeless quality, seemingly unaffecte by the passage of years. The encroachment of humans into traditionally faerie areas has caused members of House Merinita to come to their domus magna in larger numbers, and the Autumn covenant has never been as large as it is now. Irencillia has little to do with the politics of the area or of the Tribunal as a whole, preferring seclusion above all else.

History

Irencillia was never the home of Merinita herself, contrary to current belief. It was established by Quendalon, second Primus of the House, when he returned from Arcadia and turned House Merinita towards the path of the fae. Since that time the covenant has remained unchanged — and ever changing.

The Lost Domus Magna

Merinita was descended from the Roman priestesses of Diana who penetrated the German wilderness while the priests of Mercury tried to build their walls around it. She was the last priestess; the cult was in its final death throes due to the waves of Christianization following Charlemagne’s conquests, and it took all of Trianoma’s persuasive power to draw her from her temple to join the Order. Irencillia was not her original home, however; rather, it was built by Quendalon. The House knows that Irencillia was not the temple to Diana, but they do not remember where the original temple is, nor what it was called.

Setting and Physical Description

Irencillia is located in the northern stretches of the Bohemian Forest, bordering the Bohemian plain. Primarily composed of beech and oak, this part of the forest does not have dense undergrowth, just an expanse of brown leaves beneath the wide green canopy of the trees. Low-growing shrubs are discouraged by the numerous fallow deer who dwell here, and wild boar root around in the leaf litter searching for acorns, beechmast, and mushrooms. There are only a few wolves, who prefer the cover in the denser southern and eastern reaches. Lynx and bears are relatively common.

Many people approaching Irencillia for the first time expect to see a faerie castle built out of living wood, populated by elegant courtiers; this is exactly what they see. Other, more practical heads expect a forest hamlet, peopled by foresters wearing oak-green and earth-brown; once again, this is precisely what they see. Mixed groups of visitors, each with their own preconceptions, see different things before them. Some might see a wooded hill with a trilithon leading to an underground labyrinth. Others might experience a narrow gully whose high walls are dotted with cave entrances populated by humans with twisted forms. Wanderers through the region who do not know of the covenant’s existence see what they expect as well — nothing but open expanses of woodland. This curious property of the covenant has existed for many centuries, and no-one knows whether it is a spell, a faerie power, or something else.

All views of the covenant have a few features in common. Some form of boundary surrounds the entire covenant, whether this be a wooden palisade, a dry-stone wall, or a tall thorny hedge. Through this wall there is a single gateway that may or may not have a door, above which is an inscription (which may be elegantly carved into stone, roughly scratched into a plank of wood, or otherwise etched), said to be the last words uttered by Merinita before her disappearance in 785 AD.

The different appearance of the covenant to each visitor is more than just visual illusion — it is a peculiar faerie glamour that causes the actual experience of the covenant to differ between individuals. A wall that feels like smooth marble to one person will be living woven withies to another, and if one plucks a leaf, the other character will swear blind that it is a chip of marble. Likewise, the covenfolk will appear different. A character experiencing an underground tumulus will find the covenfolk to be short, squat, and ugly, and might get strange looks from those seeing the covenant as a faerie castle, as they will seem to be talking to the chest of a tall lady of the court. The covenfolk seem oblivious to these inconsistencies, but then, it is impossible to tell precisely what version of Irencillia they are experiencing! Presumably, this effect should be stopped by sufficiently strong magic resistance, although no Hermetic magus has ever reported this occurring — but then, it would be difficult to know if the view you were seeing was the real one, anyway. If a piece of Irencillia’s physical structure is removed from its aura, it will turn into dust, dried leaves, and twigs once the sun rises or sets.

No one ever forms the same global picture of Irencillia — it is impossible to construct a map of the place that would be of any use to another. Some areas have a “firm reality” where a consensus picture has emerged: the sancta of the magi, for example. Each magus has a firm idea of what their own sanctum looks like, and this reality fairly quickly establishes itself. The sancta become highly personalized, taking the form of castles, town-houses, mysterious gardens, barrows, and so on. To a lesser extent, important communal covenant areas (such as the library, council chamber, and dining hall) take on a consensus. The other details, the connecting paths or walkways, and the configuration and placement of buildings always remain highly subject to personal interpretation.

The Faerie aura of Irencillia is highly patchy. All areas within the boundary wall have an aura of at least 1, and sancta have been established where the aura is strongest (up to a strength of 6), but the strangest places can have unexpectedly high aura values. For example, a covered walkway that leads to the kitchens has a Faerie aura of 4 along its length. Some (but by no means all) of the patches of high Faerie aura reside within a regio; most of the sancta of the magi fall into this category. Each regio entrance is marked with a symbol, such as a badger’s head or a crescent moon. The meaning of these symbols is not readily understood by outsiders. It is theorized that the scattered aura and fragmented regiones of Irencillia are the product of an immense magical out-pouring; those who know the early history of the House will realize that the war between Quendalon and Myanar was just such an event.

Those not expecting to find a covenant in the midst of the Bohemian Forest will not see it. Nevertheless, these rare visitors will wander through its halls, seeing only dense undergrowth and the occasional forest animal. Such visitors are strictly avoided by Irencillia’s inhabitants, and eventually they will find the exit and wander out, none the wiser.

The Maddenhofen Woods

This name is given to a stretch of woods on the northwestern fringe of the Bohemian Forest by the members of House Merinita. Irencillia is particularly protective of these woodlands, although they do not apparently collect vis here. The woods are well-known due to the disappearance of Tytalus here in 807 AD, who claimed he was planning to face the Queen of all the Fae. While followers of Merinita scoff that such a Queen would ever exist, a powerful faerie does indeed live in the Maddenhofen Woods. She is capable of granting one’s Heart’s Desire, but those who ask must afterwards perform a task for her; and as yet, no one has ever completed one of these tasks.

Culture and Traditions

Irencillia consists of two co-existing cultures, human and fae. Every magus resident at Irencillia has a “double” in the faerie court. These fae partners do not necessarily resemble their human counterparts closely, but it is usually easy to match faerie with magus. For example, a faerie double might adopt the same style of clothing as his counterpart, or resemble his familiar. He may have the same identifiable feature, such as a birth-mark or long nose. Inhabitants of Irencillia refer to these faeries as caricatures, and soon grow to ignore them. The caricatures lead lives separate from their humans, but they will often be found dining together, or standing near each other at public events, even though they are seemingly ignoring each other’s presence. Any magus who lives at Irencillia for more than a season will gain a caricature, raised from the ranks of the servant-folk. The prospective copy will begin by shadowing his target for a season, gradually adopting the target’s mannerisms and changing his appearance. At the end of this time, the caricature is complete and the two return to independent existence. This process can be quite spooky, even for Merinita who haven’t been apprenticed at Irencillia. Upon the death or departure of a magus, his caricature will return to the ranks of the covenfolk and gradually lose its individuality. In game terms, every long-term resident of Irencillia gains the Faerie Friend Flaw for the duration of his or her visit.

The Faerie Might of a caricature varies. It often becomes higher over time, up to a maximum determined by the status of the magus at Irencillia. This status does not necessarily equate with magical power, although old magi do tend to have powerful caricatures. Political power or a deep understanding of faerie ways can also cause caricatures to become strong. Some magi who revel in their caricatures by adopting their mannerisms and personalities have found in return that they become quite closely tied to their faerie copy. The two may become more difficult to distinguish from each other, and become Arcane Connections to each other.

Magi

Handri, Primus of House Merinita

• Age: 81 (Master)
• Personality Traits: Obsessively Secretive +6, Indecisive +1, Secure in Position –2

Handri, the Primus of House Merinita, is a secretive man who shares his concerns and plans with only his most trusted advisors. Whereas his predecessor Vinaria encouraged political dialogue with the Primi of other Houses, Handri has turned his attentions wholly to the faeries, conducting long private diplomatic missions into faerie areas. Rumors suggest that he has even met with survivors of House Diedne. Handri is equally secretive about his magical abilities — none can be found who have witnessed him using magic (or will admit to having witnessed it) apart from his signature spell, which earned him the status of master (see Chapter 3: The Rhine Tribunal, Upon being a Rhine magus). Handri has been a magus for about six decades and has trained two apprentices, Iacob and Beechleaf, but has not yet (apparently) sought the status of archmage. His caricature is the Queen of Irencillia’s fae, an imperious-looking woman by the name of Rosmert. The caricature of the Primus is always the monarch of the Faerie Court, but whether there is a single, shape-shifting ruler or whether the king or queen changes as regularly as the Primus remains unknown.

Story seeds

The Return of Tytalus

A young follower of Tytalus enters the Maddenhofen Woods, determined to find her Founder. This Heart’s Desire is granted, and while she attempts to complete her task, Tytalus himself emerges from the woods, protected from the centuries by its Stasis power. What could his Heart’s Desire have been, and now that he has it, what will he do with it?

Caricatures

A caricature is kidnapped, and used to exact revenge upon the magus to whom it has adopted, by exploiting the Arcane Connection between the two.

One of the magi of Irencillia is occupied with an important project, with no time to attend the Tribunal gathering, and so sends his caricature in his stead, with some basic instructions. It remains to be seen whether the caricature will be able to successfully impersonate the magus, and avoid getting into mischief.

Attribution

Content originally published in Guardians of the Forest - The Rhine Tribunal, ©2005, licensed by Trident, Inc. d/b/a Atlas Games®, under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license 4.0 ("CC-BY-SA 4.0)