Stonehenge Tribunal

The Stonehenge Tribunal in the Saga of Stranggore is somewhat as described in Chapter 10 of Heirs to Merlin, but some covenants have been added and others have been changed.

Map

We have a map of the Tribunal in Google Maps.

Gatherings

Official meetings of the Stonehenge Tribunal are held at Stonehenge itself, under the stars. The meeting is called to order at sunset on the eve of the autumnal equinox. Historically, magi of the Tribunal have sometimes cooperated to cast powerful ritual spells among the stones at sunrise the following day. The Tribunal usually lasts a few days. The magi and their entourages encamp on Salisbury Plain.

Stonehenge is considered neutral territory. Unlike other Tribunals where magi meet at a covenant, meetings of the Stonehenge Tribunal take place outside the protection of an Aegis of the Hearth.

Meetings of the Stonehenge Tribunal occur in the following years:

• 1187
• 1194
• 1201
• 1208
• 1215

In addition, the Grand Tribunal convenes in 1221 (and 1254).

Covenants

The Stonehenge Tribunal has a lot of small covenants. There is not a lot of competition for resources among them because we've been playing Ars Magica a long time and think stories about squabbling over vis are passée.

• Amici Britanniae is a large Tremere covenant in Bedforshire
• Aquae Sulis is a covenant of Roman revivalists in the ruins of a Roman spa at Bath
• Blackthorn is a large Merinita covenant whose members are affiliated with the dark fae
• Burnham is much as it is described in Heirs to Merlin
• Cad Gadu is physically much as it is described in Heirs to Merlin, but has 9 members
• Cercle Cassée is a covenant of three Tremere magi dedicated to fighting diabolism
• The Crimson Brotherhood is a predominantly Tytalus covenant of trouble-makers fighting Norman rule
• Llanberis Pass is a covenant of followers of the Damhadh-Duidsan.
• Oswald's Haven is a covenant of Anglo-Saxon wizards in the Yorkshire Dales
• Schola Pythagoranis is somewhat similar to the description in Heirs to Merlin with some differences.
• Stormwatch, in Cumbria, has 3 Flambeau weather-witches. Torkel was apprenticed there.
• Ungulus is much as it is described in Heirs to Merlin
• Voluntas is much as it is described in Heirs to Merlin

Less Detailed Covenants

We are still developing the concept and details for the following:

• There is at least one covenant in London itself
• There is at least one covenant in Cornwall
• There are a number of covenants that have been lost over the centuries, many to violence

Wild Card Covenants

Each storyguide has one or two covenants that are "wild cards," to be used as plot devices and kept mysterious to the other storyguides.

• Andrew G. has the Crimson Brotherhood and Cercle Cassée
• Andrew W. has Blackthorn and one other

Eremites

The Stonehenge Tribunal has a large number of magi living as eremites (without a covenant). There are about 40 of them in all, comprising more than a third of the Hermetic population. The plurality of these are magi Ex Miscellanea; Houses Bjornaer, Jerbiton, and Merinita are also well represented among the solitary magi.

Most of the eremites avoid Tribunal meetings and political matters, but there are a few exceptions.

Officials

Praeco

The Praeco of the Tribunal is Immanola. She is also the Primus Ex Miscellanea, and lives at Cad Gadu. She is very old, feeble, and, some say, senile. She is a remarkably ineffective leader.

Quaesitors

There are three Quaesitors in the Stonehenge Tribunal. They are all fairly new:

• Iudicium is the senior Quaesitor and has been in office in the Stonehenge Tribunal since 1173.
• Fredegisa is an expert on mundane affairs and mundane law, and has been in office since 1187.
• Morpheo of Burnham, who is isolated with the rest of his covenant and seems to neglect his duties.

Before Iudicium, the senior Quaesitor was Phineas.

Redcaps

Redcaps in this Saga are expected to visit each covenant at least once per season. They adjust the order of their visitations in such a way that if a magus sends a message to another covenant on the same route, he will receive a reply the following season.

Houses of Hermes: True Lineages suggests there should be about 10 unGifted redcaps per Tribunal. That sounds about right, assuming that each Redcap has a regular route and that they are needed for inter-Tribunal as well as intra-Tribunal communication.

We use many of the Redcaps from Heirs to Merlin, page 114, but there are not enough of them to go around. The redcaps in our Saga are:

• John the Redcap covers Crimson Brotherhood, Blackthorn, Aquae Sulis, and Stranggore
• Little William (from Heirs to Merlin) covers Cercle Cassée, the covenant in London, Amici Britanniae and Schola Pythagoranis.
• Jocelyn (from Heirs to Merlin) covers: Burnham, Voluntas, Oswald's Haven, Ungulus, and Stormwatch
• Every Domus Magna should have a dedicated redcap. In the Stonehenge Tribunal, the only domus magna is Cad Gadu.
• Great William (from Heirs to Merlin) covers inter-Tribunal communication with the Hibernian and Loch Leglean Tribunals
• There should be one redcap for inter-Tribunal communication with the Normandy Tribunal
• There should be one specialist redcap who handles dangerous missions
• There should be one redcap with an express route to Durenmar

and that totals eight. Add one (old, semi-retired) redcap to stay at Mercer House and run the whole operation, and one more "floating" redcap for urgent deliveries and to cover other redcaps who fall ill or get delayed, and we have ten.

Peripheral Code

The Peripheral Code of the Stonehenge Tribunal is fairly permissive because the Tribunal lacks cohesion and leadership -- and because Blackthorn wants the authorities to turn a blind eye.

Forfeit Immunity

An important point of Hermetic Law, and this applies to the whole Order, is that a magus who breaks the Code forgoes the protection of the Code with respect to that activity. The loss of protection is proportional to the offense, so if a magus commits a capital offense, another magus may slay him on the spot. This is the principle on which Iudicium persuaded the Tribunal not to press charges against James in the story Judgement for Jonas.

Forfeit immunity authorizes any magus to investigate Hermetic crimes. Quaesitors have no special investigative authority: any magus can investigate a crime because the Hermetic criminal loses the Code's protection against scrying.

This concept is explained in further detail in Houses of Hermes: True Lineages.

Standing of Covenants

The Peripheral Code of the Stonehenge Tribunal does not recognize covenants as legal persons. All disputes are between magi. If there's a ruling in a civil case, it always names individual magi, not covenants. Covenants are only mentioned in Tribunal proceeding as the residences of magi, like villages or towns would be.

Depriving Magi of The Gift

The Stonehenge Tribunal treats the Code's clause against depriving a magus of his Gift fairly literally. Actually depriving a magus of The Gift has not apparently happened, but the wording of past rulings make clear the Tribunal considers it unforgivable.

There is no crime called "deprivation of magical resources." The Stonehenge Tribunal has a ruling that magi may not steal from one another, and outright stealing is considered a Low Crime for failing to abide by that ruling. More often, property disputes are resolved as civil torts, or settled out of court via negotiation or certamen.

The Tribunal can enforce compensatory damages if one magus successfully brings a complaint against another. There's a clause in the Code of Hermes about "abid[ing] by the decisions of Tribunal" that grants the Tribunal authority to enforce such rulings. In addition, the Tribunal always imposes a fine of at least 1 pawn of vis (higher if the case was controversial or lengthy) on the losing party because the Tribunal sees itself as above arbitrating personal squabbles between magi.

Precedents show that the Tribunal thinks it is acceptable for magi to use scrying to recover lost property, even though the Tribunal technically doesn't want to consider vis-grabbing a crime.

Mundane Interference

Under the Peripheral Code of the Stonehenge Tribunal, "interfering with mundanes" is unlawful if it meets any of three tests:

1. Another magus of the Order suffers loss or harm, including harm to reputation or loss of goodwill
2. The interference causes a change in ownership of land
3. A magus attempts to tamper with mundane justice, with or without using magic.

Thus, killing a landed knight would potentially count as unlawful interference because it causes the land to revert to his liege. Stealing a horse would not count as mundane interference unless another magus were to suffer as a result, for example if he were wrongly accused of the crime. But see the next point.

The Peripheral Code of the Tribunal explicitly states that magi are not immune to royal law. Thus, a magus who commits an offense against the Crown is theoretically subject to arrest and trial by royal authorities. Resisting such arrest is a crime against the Order because it interferes with the course of mundane justice. The Tribunal is silent on whether magi are also subject to the lower laws of shire and manor.

Royal offenses include all capital crimes: homicide, arson, stealing livestock, and violating the famously-harsh forest laws of England.