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.
Covenant Sites
Over its long history, the covenant of Stranggore has relocated twice.
- Somerset (1067-present)
- After the Norman Conquest of England, the covenant was located at the site that is now Winchester Castle. The Normans would have seized the site by force, but Riwallon of Jerbiton was able to negotiate a peaceful settlement by which King William granted the wizards its current, smaller demesnes in Somerset while claiming its former site for his own. Although the new site lacked for nothing, the covenant none the less went into slow decline after this second relocation. Its fortunes reached bottom around 1191, at the start of the Saga.
- Winchester Castle (817-1067)
- When the wizards of Stranggore joined the Order of Hermes in 817, the Quaesitores required them to relinquish their ancient hall because it was also the royal castle of ancient Stranggore. The covenant relocated to a prime site that is now (c. 1200) Winchester Castle. The covenant possessed extensive lands and forests there, and claimed a number of vis sources in the Weld.
- Ancient Stranggore (c. 600? - 817)
- Until 817, the wizards of Stranggore resided in the royal castle of that ancient kingdom. Though mundanes have long forgotten precisely where Stranggore was, the Skull of Cissa remembers: it was on a hilltop in Lancashire near the village of Whalley and north of the River Ribble.
Twelfth Century
1190: Beginning of the Stranggore_Events timeline.
1187 (Autumn): Stonehenge Tribunal of 1187. Astia was pronounced to be in Final Twilight.
1186: Ozerk went missing. He was presumed to be in Wizard's Twilight but was actually being held prisoner at Maidencastle.
1171: Michael Wendsworth died of old age when his Longevity Ritual failed and he declined to create another, preferring a natural death to Wizards' Twilight.
1160: Caradoc and several of the covenant's fighting grogs perished in a shipwreck in the Irish Sea while on a quest to slay a dragon.
1163: Astia went into Wizard's Twilight
c. 1120-1130: Brother Martin, the covenant librarian at the time, became a drunkard and sadly neglected the collection. Many books were stolen by departing covenant members or hoarded by residents. Others became damaged due to neglect and an infestation of book-worms.
1122: Riwallon of Jerbiton died at the Hermetic age of 216 years, making him one of Stranggore's longest living Magi. Having the Gentle Gift, he had spent his lifetime working quietly and tirelessly to build good relations between the Covenant, the Church, and the Kings of England. Negotiating the covenant's royal charter was his greatest achievement.
Eleventh Century
1067: Riwallon of Jerbiton, a senior magus of the covenant who was blessed with the Gentle Gift, successfully negotiated a royal character for the covenant with William the Conqueror himself. This required the covenant to relocate for the second time in its history, to its current site in Somerset. The covenant was granted a reasonable amount of land, which now includes Godwyn's Chase, the covenant's fields, pastures, and orchards, and the village of Barstow.
1066: The Norman Conquest changed the face of England. Stranggore failed to adapt. Much of the covenant's pride was connected to its traditional role as advisors to kings and nobles. Stranggore did not embrace the invaders and found itself supporting a lost cause. There were practical effects as well - much of the covenant's land was seized by Norman barons, and of course its allies in the Saxon nobility greatly declined in power. It was the covenant's sense that it had failed in its ancient role of safeguarding the land that sent it into irreversible decline. Since the Conquest, the covenant of Stranggore has lacked vitality and purpose.
1035: Michael Wendsworth passed his Wizard's Gauntlet and joined the covenant as a full member.
1023: Caradoc joined Stranggore. He was a young magus at the time, but not fresh out of apprenticeship.
1003-1017: The Schism War occurred early in the century. The Stonehenge Tribunal was a major battleground. Stranggore tried to stay out of the fighting and suffered a great loss of prestige as a result. Three or four magi deserted the covenant in order to join the hostilities on the side of the Roman Houses. Others left shortly after the war due to bad blood within the covenant over its reluctance to fight. There was a post-war boom of new covenants being founded that drew potential recruits away from Stranggore and into Spring covenants.
Tenth Century
994: Astia of House Criamon joined Stranggore.
Ninth Century
824: Gweir, not wanting to renounce his allegiance to the Heirs of Stanggore, leaves the covenant, bringing his filii and a number of covenfolk of like mind. They moved to an island off the coast of Cornwall.
820: Manawydan fab Llŷr the last of the Wizard Kings of Stanggore dies. Manawydan suffered from a crippling wound which forced him to stay within sight of his talisman cauldron. This wound limited his ability to resist the Order and he eventually submitted and became a member of House Ex Miscellanea. Manawydan was the last Wizard King being both Gifted and a Heir to the Mythic Kings of Stranggore. He was not however the last Wizard to claim the the Throne. He is also known as the Wounded King.
817: The Ordo Miscellanea joined the Order of Hermes as the thirteenth House; the Stonehenge Tribunal was founded. The Wizards' Council of Stranggore resisted joining the Order because they did not want to agree to the Code's proscription against interfering in mundane affairs. They were reluctant to renounce their allegiance to the ancient throne. Eventually they were persuaded to swear the Code of Hermes, but only by threat of violence. As a condition for joining the Order, the Wizards' Council was forced to formally renounce its connection to the royal line of Stranggore and to relocate away from its ancestral home. The forced relocation was thought by the Quaesitores to be a precaution against the covenant re-establishing its strong ties to the nobility. The covenant renounced its royal ties and re-dedicated itself to the service and protection of Britain as a whole.
Eighth Century
After Stranggore as a kingdom ceased to exist, the wizards migrated (some would say they fled) to the site of what is now (in the late twelfth century) Winchester Castle. They preserved the claim that they were stewards of the Kingdom of Stranggore.
Seventh Century
Shortly after the fall of Camelot and the dissolution of Arthur's Britain, the Wizards' Council was founded by the newly-independent petty king of Stranggore.
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.
Stranggore was sooner or later absorbed into Wessex.