The official name of the covenant is "the Wizards' Council of the Kingdom of Stranggore". It has a proud and regal heritage and was once one of the pre-eminent covenants of the Stonehenge Tribunal, but has now fallen into the senility and decrepitude of Winter.

Introduction

Stranggore is a very old covenant that has sunk into stagnation and decay. It was once very well-respected and is still admired for the many great historical British magi who once called it home. It has roots that go back to ancient times, before the Order of Hermes arrived in the British Isles. In the early days it was sworn to the service of a royal court. The covenant still has symbols and customs that acknowledge that heritage. Some of these are subtle -- for example, the head wizard of the covenant is called the Chancellor -- and others are overt, like the grogs' green-on-gold livery or the carved wooden throne that stands empty in the council chamber, a reminder of its ancient (and, officially, forsaken) royal allegiance.

The covenant has a certain nostalgia for the ancient Britons, though by now the Britons in England are only a legend, even among wizards. (The remaining descendants of the ancient Britons in 1220 are the Welsh.) Certainly the covenant pays no homage to the heirs of that upstart Norman usurper William the Bastard.

Location and Surroundings

Stranggore is located in Somerset, England on the historical site of Maesbury Castle, along the ancient Roman road known as the Fosse Way. It is near several interesting magical sites, including Glastonbury Tor and Wookey Hole Caves.

Our [Google map shows the location of the covenant, sites of mystical interest, and the other covenants of the Stonehenge Tribunal.

The nearest settlement is Barstow, a hamlet whose residents are tenants of the covenant. The nearest village with a church is Shepton Mallet.

As far as I can tell (from a cursory browsing of Wikipedia), Somerset is divided into about 700 fiefs, not under control of a single noble. Presumably they are a mix of royal fiefs, ecclesiastical fiefs (controlled by the Bishop of Salisbury and/or the Bishop of Wells), and local barons. Some of these fiefs no doubt are held by great nobles of the realm. The royal fiefs are each maintained by a constable; manors would be maintained by a bailiff.

Neighbors

Village of Barstow
Mericas the hedge wizard
The covenant of Aquae Sulis
The Bishop of Wells
Godwyn's Chase

Inhabitants

The living magi of Stranggore are:

See also the category pages for Stranggore's grogs and covenfolk.

Ghosts

The ancient hall of Stranggore is haunted. The following are the known ghosts:

Maps and Floor Plans

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Covenant Resources

The covenant is designed with 1250 points of resources, which puts it at the high end of the "medium" power scale. Our objective is to give the player magi enough resources that they can develop and pursue their own agendas, but not so many that they can get everything they need without leaving the covenant walls.

Vis Stocks

The vis stocks are available for use for covenant business. Members may take loans of up to 10 pawns of vis, to be repaid in kind within 2 years, at low interest (one pawn per year).

12 pawns Creo
14 pawns Vim
12 pawns Intellego
20 pawns of Muto
15 pawns of Corpus - Giant Bones

Vis Sources

The covenant's vis sources are worth 130 build points.

The covenant does not have a lot of reliable, perennial vis sources. The meta-game reason is that we want to encourage magi to go out and search for their own vis; the vis hunt will not often be a story in its own right, but it gets the magi out into the countryside where they can more easily discover story hooks. The in-game reason is that stable, renewable sources of vis are uncommon in our version of Mythic Europe. Most vis exists as one-off sources that magi harvest and deplete. This enables us to let magi find as much vis as they need, while still making perennial vis sources special and valuable.

See the Vis Guidelines for this Saga.

Spring Vis Sources

None.

Magi who vis to forage for vis may each collect one pawn. Player-magi may also gain another pawn as a reward for contributing to the Saga (by updating the wiki, running a story, etc.)

Summer Vis Sources

Enchanted Pear Tree (2 Muto): Hywel Mawr moved the covenant's magical pear tree from the distance forest of The Weld onto the covenant grounds in 1197. Fruit from the tree ferments as soon as picked. Anyone who eats one of the pears will be drunk for Moon duration.

Autumn Vis Sources

Moss from Milestones (6 Vim): The magi gather moss from the milestones along the Fosse Way. This provides 6 Vim / year (sufficient to sustain the Aegis of the Hearth). It could be harvested for more but that could diminish or destroy the yield for future years.
Enchanted Pear Tree (2 Muto): The enchanted pear tree also bears fruit in Autumn.

Magi who wish to forage for vis may each collect one pawn. Storyguides may award one additional pawn to magi whose players have earned a bonus for their contributions.

Winter Vis Sources

Oath Blood (2 Rego per magus): Each year the magi renew the Oath of Stranggore and drip their blood onto the arms of the ancient royal throne, which stands empty in the great hall. Due to mystical forces beyond Hermetic theory, the mingled blood ceases to be an Arcane Connection to any of the magi and remains fresh and liquid for the whole year. This yields two pawns of Rego vis per magus per year.

History

Main article: Stranggore History

The covenant of Stranggore traces its existence back to the days shortly after King Arthur. When Camelot fell, the petty kings who had sworn allegiance to Arthur re-asserted their independence. Stranggore was one of those small, early British kingdoms. Perhaps following the example of Arthur seeking the aid and counsel of Merlin, one of the kings of Stranggore gathered to his court the three most powerful wizards in the land. Under his patronage this circle of court wizards throve and grew for generations.

The Mythical Land of Stranngore

Stranggore is an early British kingdom mentioned briefly in the legend of King Arthur; in Le Morte D'Arthur, [Book I, Chapter XII], King Brandegoris of Stranggore is one of eleven kings who joined forces against King Arthur. In our history of Mythic Europe, the kingdom of Stranggore was defeated by Arthur and assimilated into his realm. After Camelot fell, several of Arthur's vassal kings reclaimed their independence, and Stranggore was one of these. It was in this post-Arthurian period of independence when the Wizards' Council of Stranggore was established.

No one really knows where Stranggore was in Mythic Europe; it's not a real place. It was probably in the northwest of England. The kingdom of Stranggore was eventually conquered by the invading Angles and Saxons. The Wizards' Council went into exile but survived, clinging to the hope of one day restoring the rightful British ruler.

The Wizards' Council and the Order of Hermes

When the wizards of the British Isles joined the Order of Hermes, the Wizards' Council of Stranggore was forced to relinquish its ties to the broken royal line of Stranggore. It renounced its royal ties and re-dedicated itself to the service and protection of Britain as a whole. The Grand Tribunal stipulated that the Wizards' Council of Stranggore must relocate away from its ancestral lands. So it came to settle in Somerset.

For two centuries Stranggore prospered. It was among the mightiest and most prestigious covenants of the Stonehenge Tribunal, attaining a size of twelve members. The events of the eleventh century -- the Schism War, followed by the Norman conquest -- sent the covenant into a slow but irreversible decline.

The Oath of Stranggore

The Wizards' Council's Oath of Stranggore has been unchanged for many years, last one being when they joined the Order, and has always been a blood oath. Every year on the Winter Solstice every member of the covenant cuts thier hand and swears the Oath of Stranggore before the Council:

By this blood, I swear to serve the kings of Stranggore so that through my wizard's council fulfill their noble charge to protect this land from man and beast both magical and mundane, and through this service form a brotherhood of wizards whom together strive to keep this land fruitful magical and safe, and as this is the will of the Wizard's Council of Stranggore so it is my will to serve within the boundaries of my Hermetic Oath and conscious to God. This I do swear.

When the oath is complete one places their hand on the Throne of Stranggore; this is the source of the Oath Blood Vis.

Stranggore

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