So a while back I did a back of the envelope calculation of how many magic items there were in the order (310 major items, 775 medium items, and 2235 minor items made by mages who are now dead, with half that many made by mages still living).
I have started working on a similar calculation for the number of books. I thought I'd post what I have at the moment, and see if anyone has any additional thoughts....
April 2005 Archives
Well-known secrets; waking a Brewer; “This may be the stupidest thing I’ll do all day”; horses and monkeys; clammy and close; “Where on earth are we going to get some fish?”
Charles asked for a "family tree" of the covenants of the Order, and unlike everything else I have on my list of things I'd like to get up here, this one seemed relatively easy to whip out. So here it is.
Proposed rules for the Lexicon game, developed from the discussion in the thread proposing the game.
The Graduates of Bethelion —and Where They Are Now. Arranged by graduating class.
Loriat of Bethelion's first graduating class and Instigator of the Derlethian Renunciation
Respected Bethelion lecturer of Houses Derleth and Aegidius; a traditionalist Derlethian and member of the University's first graduating class.
I'm opening this topic to give a space for questions I & others might have as we write our lexicon entries.
My opening one is this: what is the known world tea equivalent, and what are
it's properties?
Founder of Acus Doris, of Houses Derleth and Cristofer; a member of Bethelion's first graduating class.
Derleth's first filius: Odger of Houses Aegidius, Cristofer and Derleth.
Founder of Sphaera Musicae and member of Bethelion's first graduating class; a mage of Houses Derleth and Touccio, specialized in matters musical
Founder of Leo Compulsus, hero of the first Savacion rogue hunt, member of Bethelion's first graduating class, and convicted diabolist.
Graduated with the third class of Bethelion. A military mage with a preference for seige craft, he was largely responsible for the conquest of Northern Gaetan and the founding of the covenant of Manu Tenere.
Loriat of the second graduating class of Bethelion, erstwhile Elizabethan hopeful, scholar of Amicitianism, and Founder of Covenant Legatum Grigori.
Highly influential Annalum Cristoferean, holder of a seat on the Cristoferean High Council, member of Bethelion's second graduating class.
Derlethian, Touccian, and Neo-Amicitian; ex-Bethelion lecturer and founder of Covenant Legatum Grigori.
Founder of Flos Crastinus, Bethelion lecturer, advocate of the New Derlethian movement.
Dynamic Loriat of Bethelion's third graduating class, filia of Derleth and namesake of "Mavan Derlethianism."
[This is extending off of my response to a question/comment Kip made on the wiki entry for Circumsessor. I started writing this there, but decided that it would be far more findable if it went in its own blog entry].
Founder of Legatum Grigori, member of Bethelion's third graduating class.
Arcadian Derlethian of Bethelion's third graduating class, the University's first Manerean student, founder of Flos Crastinus, founder of Papilio Aestivus.
Mavan Derlethian and Touccian Renunciate, specialist in enchantments of scrying and of communication, believed by many to be "Ursula."
Member of Bethelion's third graduating class, founder of Flos Crastinus, provider of apprentices to the University for the past twenty-five years.
There’s a lot that could come to a head with all of this, and I want to sketch out at least what I think has been and might be going on.
What shall we do with the secret histories?
Loriat of Bethelion's fourth graduating class and founder of Lord of Misrule.
One of the founders of Lord of Misrule
One of the founders of Lord of Misrule
One of the founders of Lord of Misrule
I have a question about Savacion gauntlets and Mr. Blue.
Loriat of Bethelion's fifth graduating class, creator of the portal linking Bethelion with Annalum, and would-be investigator of Covenant Rockroot.
A Touccian/Derlethian hermit, late of Flos Crastinus, member of Bethelion's fifth graduating class.
Ambitious Derlethian Savacion of the fifth graduating class; posthumously granted membership in Covenant Leo Compulsus.
Founder of the New Traditionalist movement, constant critic of the Cristoferean High Council, and the Loriat of Bethelion's sixth graduating class.
Touccian, Derlethian, and New Traditionalist.
Touccian, Derlethian, New Traditionalist, and a founder of Covenant Aenigma Novalindenis.
Derlethian/Aegidian protege of Bethelion's Theophrastian lecturer, currently at St. Kevin of the Apples
Derleth's last student, founder of Domus Octobris, and proponent of the "New Derlethianism."
Manerean Derlethian of Covenant Ne Interire
Aristocratic Derlethian and Manerean renunciate
Dream-savant, Derlethian Lemmite, Founder of Manu Tenere
"Joyful Laureate"
Laetitia is that strangest and rarest of mages: One who made it through the entirety of apprenticeship without ever becoming hardened and embittered towards the world.
She is also one of the founders of Manu Tenere.
New Derlethian agitator and Savacion Renunciate of Tres Regni
A devout Aegidian and a strong advocate of the University system, graduate of Bethelion and founder of Manu Tenere.
This is really rather off-topic, but Charles' designation of Laetitia Laureata as a Mary Sue carried us into a conversation about whether or not she is one, what would suffice to qualify an RPG character as a Sue anyway, and...
Wendellian Derlethian Savacion, Loriat of the ninth graduating class, member of Antrum, and Wannabe Kingmaker.
The Obedient Son of Bethelion's tenth graduating class and its Loriat.
The student of the Squirrel of Dor: a mage with an eye for the unusual.
Aegidian Renunciate and a founder of Domus Octobris
A minor story from the Black Book of Lem.
Talented young Manerean Derlethian with nasty sex scandal in her past.
A short-lived Westmarchite and an expert in mentem, she commited suicide after her apprentice was mortally injured in a lab accident.
A Lexicon Book: Sonata's satire of Westmarchism does not impress a certain Circulan.
The cover image from Sonata erat Aurora's Concordance for the Birds
The 15 magical arts arranged in a 4 by 4 square, with one blank square. Derived from the Brellyn Lemmite theory of Hardness and Whiteness, 15 puzzles are frequently seen on the front covers and frontice pieces of Lemmite texts.
A gruesome tale of murder and betrayal, found in the Blue Book of Lem. It is sufficiently obscure that only a devout Lemmite could even realize that it is a tale at all.
Faithful descendents of the Gravites, the Westmarchites refuse to done any color but the Black. After the Linguans split off from the Gravites, the Westmarchites came to believe that, since the Books of Lem contained all possible holy magic, spontaneous...
A Lexicon Book: Elias’s book on the body in pain is more controversial than he had perhaps expected.
A Lexicon Book: On siegecraft. Also known as Sedicum Macri.
The lowly yet powerful gatekeeper of the Order’s most prestigious library.
Eleanoréan “hollow books”: a surprisingly persistent myth.
This volume is a valuable reworking of a useful but heretofore rather inaccessible text.
Infamous Purpurean satire of the the Linguan tradition of Lemmitism. The initial version, the Blank Book proper is a rather thin joke (being in fact a blank book) , but the Blank Book with Commentary is the cornerstone of Purpureanism.
Burn-out of the tenth graduating class, and a founder of Domus Octobris.
Talented and very, very violent Derlethian Savacion; one of the few women in the House and an outspoken Ursulan.
Scribbly notes on a handful of things I've been mulling over for Order history events post-422. Some of these have been discussed with other people, others not, so I thought I'd just throw some of them out here as a blog entry.
The outer binding, constructed of wood stitched with metal and covered in a thick, rich velvet, is extraordinarily thick and heavy, making For Those So Lazy a tempting item to throw if faced with an exceptionally large rat.
The Savacion House Gauntlets from 398, the year in which they first started being held as (somewhat more) formal affairs at Covenant Leo Compulsus.
For each one, I've given a list of that year's candidates, as well as a short description of the overall tenor of the event. I've also linked to a "more about" phantom for each the individual gauntlet years; I figure that it might be useful to have a designated place where we can jot down all of the various stories and anecdotes and ideas about what went down at the gauntlets. (This might be a useful thing to have for the Manerean Conjugations too, now that I think about it)....
Links to family trees for the magi of House Aegidius, rendered in what I hope may be a somewhat more spatially comprehensible format than the GEDView generates —although honestly, I'm not sure if they'll render at all properly on anyone's computer but my own. (If they don't, let me know and I'll see if I can fix it.)
Please note that since this is still very much a work in progress, links to pages for the other Houses won't work yet.
Asonder came out of Arcadia a changed man, although not as much as you'd think. He talks to things and he's kind of slow moving. His magic has gotten weird and powerful, with a lot of politely asking his suroundings
The gentes of House Savacion, circa 425.
Links to family trees for the magi of House Savacion.
Distinctive merchants of fine and sophisticated goods at Marienburg.
A Picardian custom: The Tinker King is a crude puppet made of scraps of wood and dressed in scraps of cloth, carried high on the shoulders of a puppeteer, with rudely articulated arms capable of jerking excitably up and down. The most valuable thing on a Tinker King is a gold halo or crown, rayed, most often, like a Sun.
“Goldsmith”; soi-disant founder of the “Golden” line of Savacions
A timeline of events of particular importance to the Plenilunial Elementalist movement.
Oath taken by members of House Cristofer to spend one season out of every year in service to the Order. Exactly what constitutes "service to the Order" has never been specified.
Followers of the teachings of the Aegidian hermit Theophraste the Younger, who believed all Cholaeic magic save the art of intellego to be fundamentally Demiurgic. Theophraste was particularly insistent that creo be abandoned, as he considered it a direct replication of the Demiurgic function of the material creation of the world. A number of Theophraste's later disciples softened his teachings, claiming that magi should merely use particular caution when practicing magic rather than eschewing it altogether. Hard-line Theophrastians, however, refuse to demonstrate proficiency in any art save intellego; they are therefore not often recognized as magi by the Order. The most extreme followers of Theophraste believe any act of material creation to be Demiurgic; they hold that the Demiurge is female, and that the act of giving birth is a crime against Holy Wisdom. There are a number of Theophrastians among the mundane monks of the Aegidian Order; the movement is particularly active at Lapidis.
Members of the Order's newest House, House Derleth, which was founded only seven years ago in 418. House Derleth is still struggling to establish firm policies regarding its membership qualifications. Members of the House are currently divided into a number of different factions, each with its own ideas of who should be considered "Derlethian." (See entries for Mavan Derlethians, >Abelardian Derlethians, and "Old Derlethians") The term is most commonly used, however, to refer to those magi raised at the University Covenant, Bethelion.
Term for the interpretation of Derlethianism favored by the elders of Bethelion, who believe that membership in the new House ought be granted only to graduates of magical universities.
“The Brusque.”
Elder Lapidis Aegidian, founder of Tempestatem Sedare, supporter of Ecclesius.
Aegidian of Covenant Lapidis
Leader of the Lapidis Theophrastians
Current roster of magi at Covenant Lapidis (as of 425)
Engineer of the Nonae Fidelitatis Incident
“Horse Without a Rider” or Gi
Yes, but does he have pointy ears?
Current roster of magae at the Covenant of St. Cyrynthia (as of 425)
Current roster of magae at the Covenant of St. Anna On the Rye (as of 425)
Current roster of magi at the Covenant of St. Kevin of the Apples (as of 425).
Current roster of magi at the Covenant of St. Pyrandor (as of 425).
Current roster of magi at Leo Compulsus (as of 425).
Current roster of magi at the Covenant at Talchester (as of 425).
Casting call; disloyal, loyal, and loyal-but-objecting; Tenemus or pseudo-Tenemus; the second objector; pumpkin-heads; “I’m getting tired of our arrangement”; invisible monkeys and grieving for Nishoba; “Down fell he!”; “Seedcake?”; Cameron’s footsteps; a valuable corpse.
Current roster of magi at Covenant Mille Lacus (as of 425).
A list of all of the Inceptum-found students who later became mage --because not having such a list was driving me nuts.
I imagine that in addition to the people listed here, there were a goodly number of fatalities, as well as a number of students who once the indoctrination procedure was over, were found not to be sufficiently gifted for Cholaeic magehood, and who were therefore either handed over to the monastaries or shunted into the Procopian network.
"Scaurus' Last Retreat" -- an urban legend of the Order
Quested for Scaurus' Last Retreat, parens to Alcedo of the Power Trio
A question about Westmarkers answered as it’s asked; also, what is the Lemmish word for hadith?
Anecdotes and proverbs drawn from the life of Lem or, less frequently, Tresmillia.
Third century school of House Lem, progenitor of the Westmarchite and Linguan schools.
Schism which occurred at Covenant Westmarch from 301 to 303, eventually leading to the abandonment of the original Gravite School of House Lem in favor of two new schools: the Westmarchite School and the Linguan School.
A Lexicon Book: One of the strangest—and most unexpectedly useful—mentem texts.
Links to family trees for the magi of House Lem.
Leader of the Covenant of St. Kevin of the Apples; an animal specialized mage of House Aegidius.
filius Sumner, of House Aegidius
trained by the Inceptum 383-385; apprenticed 385; declared mage in 400
Found by the Inceptum in 383 and prepared for Cholaeic apprenticeship from 383 to 385, he was given to be raised by the animal specialist Sumner at the Covenant of St. Kevin of the Apples. By virtue of his ascension to magehood in 400, he narrowly escaped recall to Inceptum for investigation in 403. Late in 405, however, he was abducted and held for questioning by the Opacan Lemmites, who considered the entire Flavian Line highly suspect. The Opacans released him shortly thereafter, in adherence to the terms of their surrender agreement early in 406.
Amicitianism's most famous proponents, legendary creators of enchanted devices
Handsome, charismatic, and an infinitely more cerebral mage than his parens was--or, for that matter, than either of his two filii would be--Alcedo was generally considered the leader of the Power Trio during his own lifetime. More recently, however, scholars have come to believe that it was in fact his low-key colleague Nocturnus who served as the quietly dominant member of the group.
The quiet one.
Touccian of the Power Trio
Current roster of magi at Covenant Westmarch (as of 425).
Current roster of magi at Quintus Opacus (as of the very end of 425/beginning of 426).
A Lemmite of Quintus Opacus
A mentem phantom text for the Lexicon Game.
Scent, they say, is the key to memory.
afineteachingtextifoneisabletooverlooktheformatafinerteachingtextstillifonelearnstoheedthelessonsofthevirtuesofcarefulstudy.
Still, you might be better served reading the Black Book.
In 424, the last surviving founders of Covenant Virginis In Litus decided that it was finally time for them to depart. They sailed off in the Dream Ship which they had built for Nissa back in 362, and they have not been seen there in the waking world since.
This is part of both the Quintus Opacus and the Virginis In Litus covenant histories, but since it's highly relevant backstory for the current bunch of Quintus Opacans, I thought I'd best get it up here.
Litan captive of the Quintus Opacans
A Lemmite of the Inceptum and of Quintus Opacus; infiltrator of the Quintillican Priestood, martyr-hero of raid on Quintillican High Temple
Opacan Lemmite, invader of Nonae Fidelitatis, and martyr-hero of the raid on the High Temple in Quintillica
A young Opacan Lemmite
A concept of great importance to those who study mentem
First filia of Chirotheca Velveta and the second eldest living mage of House Lem, Scriba Fusca has followed in the footsteps of both her parens and her uncle Biseruptus by specializing in magics of interrogation, persuasion and indoctrination.
A mentem text
Current leader of the Opacan Lemmites
A Circulan Lemmite at Quintus Opacus
A Westmarchite at Quintus Opacus
A music-specialized Diaspora Lemmite, currently at Quintus Opacus
A young Opacan Lemmite, the suborned ex-student of Isidor of House Aegidius.
A young Opacan Lemmite
A young Circulan Opacan Lemmite
Westmarchite/Opacan student, soon to graduate to magehood
Lemmite founder of Sphaera Musicae
A music-specialized Opacan Lemmite, only recently come to the West
Inceptum-found Aegidian of Covenant Lapidis
Lapidis Aegidian, invader of Nonae Fidelitatis, follower of Ecclesius
A Lapidis Aegidian
Lapidis Aegidian
Eldest living Lemmite and leader of the Westmarch School for the past forty years.
A Lemmite of the Westmarch School
An Opacan Lemmite, abductor of suspect apprentices and magi during the Nonae Fidelitatis Incident
An early covert to Purpureanism and the magical twin of l117b. Executed by the Opacans during the Nonae Fidelitatis incident.
A purpurean with a missing apprentice.
Progenitor of the sole remaining male Westmarchite line and heir to the leadership of the Westmarch School.
A Lemmite of the Westmarch School
A Lemmite of the Westmarch School
One of the few remaining male Lemmites of the Westmarch School.
A Lemmite of the Westmarch School
A Lemmite of the Westmarch School
One of the few remaining male Lemmites of the Westmarch School; will ascend to magehood on Dissipation, 425/426
Aegidian convert to Westmarchitism
An Aegidian of St. Kevin of the Apples
An Aegidian of St. Kevin of the Apples
All the colors of Cholæ.
The Inceptum's Model Student.
First Melian Speaker since 416
A founder of St. Cyrynthia
Yva's Mum
A Melian of St. Cyrynthia
Ranking Melian of St. Anna on the Rye
A founder of the Covenant of St. Anna on the Rye
A Melian of St. Anna on the Rye
A Melian of St. Anna on the Rye
A Melian of St. Anna on the Rye
A Lexicon Book: Forest. Regarding certain Wendellian aspects of the art of herbam.
First Speaker of the Cristoferean High Council
Political Plenilunial Cristoferean, founder of Bethelion, and a member of the Cristoferean High Council.
Fae-haunted Cristoferean of Annalum
To expand a little on previous Straussian/Opacan ruminations.
Annalum Cristoferean and Manerean Renunciate
