Crimson Brotherhood

The Crimson Brotherhood is a covenant in Leicestershire. It is a young covenant of four Tytalus magi. Its members are easily identifiable by their blood-red velvet cloaks. The Crimson Brotherhood is disliked by most of the other covenants in the Stonehenge Tribunal.

Purpose and Activities

The player-magi overheard at the Stonehenge Tribunal of 1194 that the Crimson Brotherhood was founded by two magi who claim their pater was murdered by a Norman noble. They apparently swore vengeance or something and adopted their distinctive crimson cloaks to symbolize the blood of their pater. There is probably more to it than that.

Suspected Activities

• Bandits with a ring of Call of the Eternal Slumber accuse Hugo of giving them the ring in return for a cut of their spoils.
• Osric the Black was reported to be aided in escape by mysterious weather phenomenon; Sandre witnessed this himself, and suspects Virkon's involvement.

Known Members

• Davin, a goblin-blooded wizard skilled in Imaginem
• Hugo, belligerent senior magus
• Tytal, shrewd young magus who competed in the tournament of 1194
• Virakon, sneering senior magus

Reputation

• Trouble-makers 3 (Hermetic)

All the covenants in the Stonehenge Tribunal seem to dislike the Crimson Brotherhood. These four magi were treated with considerable scorn, disrespect, and mistrust at the Tribunal of 1194.

Past Encounters

• Stonehenge Tribunal of 1194
• The Certamen Tournament
• The Intruding Magus

History

The following is a bit of the history of the Crimson Brotherhood as related by Brian the Mad:

"Ah, yes, the Crimson Brotherhood. They were not always known by that name. Once it was a small covenant of House Jerbiton, really just a former eremite, his filius, and his apprentice. In those days they called themselves the Brotherhood of the Golden Key. The founding magus was an alchemist named Nicholas Gainforth -- he used his Christian name, as many magi of House Jerbiton do. I remember, because I was there.

"In my younger days I was one of the covenfolk at the Brotherhood of the Golden Key, up in Worchestershire. I spent a lot of time sharpening quills, as I recall. I was a copyist and an assistant to the steward.

"Nicholas Gainforth lived and studied peacefully at his house for many a year. He did not keep men-at-arms like Stranggore does. Not in those days, at least. Somehow something went foul between Magus Gainforth and the Earl of Worcester, Waleran de Beaumont. I believe it had to do with Magus Gainforth refusing to become a court wizard and refusing to supply the Earl with enchanted weapons and the like. I know the Earl came to visit personally, although the magus tried to dissuade him. That was when relations truly went downhill, for the Norman lord was strongly affected by the magus's Gift and came to hate him.

"Magus Gainforth appealed to the Quaesitores to help mediate in his dispute with the Earl. As you well know, he was simply following the Code to the best of his ability but he could not get himself out of this trouble with the mundane lord. No good deed goes unpunished, as the saying goes. Well the Quaesitor, that was Phineas, Iudicium's predecessor, didn't want to get personally involved so he passed the matter along to the whole Tribunal. They put it on the agenda for the Stonehenge Tribunal of 1166. The trouble is, it never made it to the floor. The pot boiled over, so to speak, a couple of years earlier.

"First the Earl -- or someone -- convinced the Bishop of Worchester to excommunicate Magus Gainforth. Then came the allegations of witchcraft. This caused no end of trouble for the small covenant and it was about then they stopped paying their servants, so reluctantly I left the place and headed to Oxford for a time. Just a few weeks later a group of armed men broke into the place to haul Magus Gainforth away for trial. Well I never heard the details but somehow the arrest went badly and a knight, Robert la Cleve, murdered Magus Gainforth in his own laboratory. Before the very eyes of his apprentice, apparently.

"The other magus, Hugo, managed to drive the assailants out of the house. Then, standing over his pater's corpse, he swore revenge against the Norman lords who had so unjustly slain a peaceful magus. Magus Gainforth's apprentice joined him in this oath, his white apprentice's robe still stained with the blood from where his master had died in his arms. The two adopted this color as a symbol of the innocent blood they swore to avenge. And of course they turned their backs on House Jerbiton forever.

"The knight Robert la Cleve was their first victim. The rumors say he was found dead at a roadside without a mark on him, but his face contorted in an expression of such horror it's as if he died of fright. I don't know how many other Normans they slew. It must have been half a dozen in the first year. After that, the knights of the shire learned to stay clear of that place. Thing quieted down quite a bit when Waleran de Beaumont passed away.

"But the magi who now call themselves the Crimson Brotherhood have attracted another magus, Gavin, to their cause. And Hugo has finished training his apprentice, so now there are four of them. I understand they're accepted, grudgingly, by House Tytalus now. And they have allies. I believe you've had a run-in with their man Ralf already. They call him the Red Hound. He's not a grog, he's what we call a consors. They have some others: outlaws, rogues and cutthroats all.

"And they have all sworn to die rather then bend the knee to any mundane, and to kill any noble who orders their arrest or tries to lay demands upon them."