Reading the Tribunal Records at Cad Gadu ======================================== Rhiannon has opted to spend Summer of 1227 studying the records of the Stonehenge Tribunal, which she unearthed in the run-down library of Cad Gadu. The records count as a tractatus on Hermetic Law, Quality 8. Rhiannon gains experience points accordingly. General Information on Hermetic Law ----------------------------------- Hermetic law is based largely on the principle of common law. The Order is divided into thirteen Tribunals (Tribunal, in this sense, means an administrative region -- usage of the word "Tribunal" in Ars Magica is highly equivocal). Each Tribunal is governed by the assembly of its magi. Such an assembly is also called a Tribunal. There is only one real example that can be considered statute law in the Order: the Code of Hermes, also called the Hermetic Oath. Every magus must swear to the Code of Hermes upon induction into the Order. The Code is broadly written and serves, loosely, as the Constitution of the Order. Each Tribunal assembly is theoretically responsible for interpreting the Code within its own territory. Precedent and tradition are guiding legal principles: each Tribunal has its own body of case law. What Rhiannon has discovered is the case law of the Stonehenge Tribunal. Coincidentally, it also serves as a historical record. There is a single, Order-wide Grand Tribunal that convenes once every thirty-three years. The Grand Tribunal serves as an authoritative judicial and legislative body. Its assembled rulings are called the Peripheral Code. By tradition, the Peripheral Code supercedes all case law of the local Tribunal. Because local Tribunal law is based on case law, and the local Tribunals meet frequently (every seven years), local law can and does evolve with time. It is often possible to find conflicting precedents. The Tribunal is, in the end, ruled by consensus, and it does respond to Hermetic political trends. All dates are Hermetic, that is, they are reckoned in the Age of Pisces, which began in 139 B.C.. The Early Years (956-1066) --------------------------- The Stonehenge Tribunal, along with Loch Leglean (Scotland) and Hibernia (Ireland), was created by the Grand Tribunal of 956 to accomodate the newly-formed House Ex Miscellanea. The Stonehenge Tribunal convened in a special session later that year. At the time, there was not yet a legal precedent as to what constituted a quorum at Tribunal. No covenants even existed at the first meeting of the Stonehenge Tribunal. Modern standards require that at least twelve magi, from at least four different covenants, are required for a quorum. Since no covenants existed in Stonehenge in 956, that meeting was inquorate by modern standards, though no one has ever questioned its legitimacy. The first order of business was to decide the question of who should be the Praeco. Hermetic tradition already existed stating that the eldest magus residing in the Tribunal be its Praeco; but how to define the eldest? First born, first to complete apprenticeship, or first to be inducted into the Order? A special legate from the Grand Tribunal, a Quaesitor from the covenant of Durenmar, presided over this part of the meeting. No doubt influenced by loyalty to their charismatic war leader, Pralix, the militant hedge wizards voted decisively that the age of the Praeco was to be computed by date of induction into the Order. This made Pralix the oldest magus in the Stonehenge Tribunal, and hence the Praeco. She was also Primus of House Ex Miscellanea, and in holding such dual office, she wielded political power equal to that of only Bonisagus himself. Other acts of the Stonehenge Tribunal of 956 were to ratify the charter of the Covenant of Cad Gadu; to call for a second special session of the Stonehenge Tribunal the following year; and to induct more than a dozen magicians into the Order of Hermes. Very early in the history of the Tribunal-- in 957, its second meeting -- tensions began to emerge between native, English and Welsh magi, and "settlers" from mainland Europe. The native magi saw the Latin immigrants as trespassers and resented their lack of assistance in the war against Dav'Nalleous; the Latin magi saw the natives as an undisciplined rabble and bemoaned their frequent abuses of the Code. The natives were belligerent and often raided Latin covenants for goods and books; the settlers were manipulative and skillfully played native factions against one another. The Latin magi used the political process to their advantage, engendering in the native magi a distrust for law and order that persists to this day. The traditional two-leagues' radius, within which a covenant may claim exclusive vis rights, originates in legal rulings over the frequent vis raids of the Tribunal's early years. Another trend of the early years was vigilance against the return of Dav'Nalleous. Apparently, although his forces had been defeated at the Battle of the Brilliant Light (also called the Battle of the Abandoned Army, or "Cad Gadu"), there was something inconclusive about the fate of Dav'Nalleous himself. There were also quite a few of his allies to mop up- mostly giants and dark fae in Scotland and Yorkshire. Pralix's war chiefs --of whom there were a dozen or more-- made a point of extracting public oaths from the Latin magi that the latter would fight against the lingering threat of Dav'Nalleous, whom they often called by his Gaelic name, Damhan-allaidh, meaning "spider." Blackthorn was one of the very first covenants founded in the Tribunal. It was the largest and most assertive of the Latin covenants, though not necessarily the most aggressive. Other important early covenants were Cad Gadu, Rosalba (a Latin covenant in Yorkshire), the Nameless Covenant (a Diedne covenant on Angelsey), Land's End, and Lux Draconis. Historically interesting, but not important in political or legal terms, was the covenant of Concordia. It was specially dedicated at the Tribunal of 960 to research the disparate traditions of House Ex Miscellanea and incorporate them into Hermetic theory. The covenant of Concordia disbanded before the next Tribunal meeting. Another dramatic failed covenant is Rector Maris, founded in 1005 on the Isle of Man. Several Latin magi visited Man in 1003 and returned with exuberant reports of powerful magic aurae and copious vis supplies. They eagerly settled on the island two years later, only to be wiped out by a group of hostile magicians. The Tribunal sent a strong force to investigate, fearing that Dav'Nalleous was responsible. The investigation was inconclusive but the consensus seems to be that a mysterious order of Nordic wizards, not diabolists, was responsible for the destruction of Rector Maris. You noticed another tidbit about Blackthorn: some time around 1010, there was a Wizard's War between a maga, Diana of Blackthorn, and a magus, William of Jerbiton. Diana was the victor. This followed a long and bitter rivalry between Blackthorn and Rosalba. Hostility between the two continued, until one of the two covenants declared Wizards' War on the other. Whoever started the war, Blackthorn won: it destroyed and looted Rosalba in 1038. The records don't show who actually declared the covenant-on-covenant Wizards' War, but such a declaration is certainly unlawful according to everything you know about Hermetic law. The Tribunal failed to act, or even adequately investigate this highly irregular incident. Reading between the lines, you suspect it may be because many of the British magi approved of the outcome. Rosalba had been a powerful Latin covenant that threw its weight around quite a bit. The shocking lack of response from the Tribunal may have contributed to the outbreak of the Schism War. Prelude to War (1067-1136) -------------------------- After the initial period of growth and expansion, the political landscape of the Stonehenge Tribunal looked much as it does today: a few large, influential, Latin covenants dominated political affairs, and most of the native British traditions were practiced in solitude or in small, short-lived, very weak covenants. One notable exception was the Nameless House, which flourished and built several strong covenants. The Stonehenge monument was a point of political contention during this period. It is generally known that Stonehenge was built by Merlin as a memorial for Arthur's war dead. Legend says that Merlin didn't build the momument from scratch, but magically moved it from a site in Ireland. It has a very powerful magic aura, so it was coveted by magi as a site for casting ritual spells. A couple of covenants tried to establish outposts near Stonehenge in the hope of exercising some contrived territorial claim, but the neighboring magi, and the Tribunal itself, were unsympathetic. Several certamen were fought over access to Stonehenge and the Tribunal records show complaints about the terms of certamen (a losing party accused the winner of abusing certamen to impose an over-reaching demand, or a winner accused a loser of reneging on the terms of his defeat, etc.). The Tribunal rulings show a cautious tendency to avoid upholding any claims of a magus or covenant's exclusive claim to Stonehenge, and to come down hard on anyone who tried to deny others access or gather vis from the site. This established the de facto rule that Stonehenge itself belongs to no one, and is available to all. A notable exception to this trend was the Tribunal of 1074, when several Latin magi advanced a petition to make a formal study of the site (they offered to share their findings): they were defeated by a House Diedne-Ex Miscellanea coalition and the Tribunal passed a resolution declaring the site a kind of historical preserve. The Tribunal became increasingly troubled by unrest as time went on. In 1070, the Cornish covenant of Sursum was destroyed by Athelstan, King of Wessex, during his campaign to suppress a Cornish revolt. The Tribunal held an ad hoc meeting and dispatched a special commission of Quaesitoris and senior magi. They discovered evidence that Sursum covenant had been participating in the revolt in violation of the Code. Details are vague, but Tribunal records include statements by the investigators accusing Sursum of diabolism. This was to be a portentious discovery. The surviving magi of Sursum had already fled the Tribunal, but a Wizards' March was declared against them in absentia. Inspired by continuing tales of the magical riches of the Isle of Man, a strong group of magi embarked there in 1077 to found the covenant of Rector Novus. It, too, was soon destroyed. The fate of Rector Novus was debated openly in Tribunal, and opinions ranged from a dragon to Dav'Nalleous to raids by jealous magi from Hibernia or Loch Leglean. No investigation was sent because the Tribunal could not even agree whether the Isle of Man was within Stonehenge and the Quaesitoris were heavily occupied with matters closer to home. Evidence of diabolism was recurring. Crisis struck the Order in 1100. After a decades-long investigation, a special Tribunal was convened in Normandy to charge Tasgilla, Primus of House Tytalus, with diabolism. Her conviction and execution, along with many other senior members of House Tytalus, fed the smoldering conflicts in the Stonehenge Tribunal. Tytalus magi were hunted by roving bands of vigilantes without regard to the Code of Hermes. The Tribunal failed to intervene in a timely way, though it did give fair trials to the Tytalus magi who were captured alive. The subsequent investigation into the vigilanteism was halfhearted at best. Following the Corruption of Tytalus, there was considerable suspicion directed at House Diedne. Apparently, House Diedne never allowed magi of other Houses to join its covenants. Clannish practices looked suspicious in light of the Tytalus crisis. Diedne's continued growth worried Latin and British magi alike. No specific event stands out, but 1100-1136 is a period of gradually escalating distrust and tension between the Diedne covenants and the rest of the Tribunal. House Deidne had grown strong enough, and popular enough with House Ex Miscellanea, to block the Tribunal from legal resolutions to investigate its practices. The Schism War (1142-1151) -------------------------- The Stonehenge Tribunal did not meet during the war, nor, indeed, for about a decade afterward, so all you can learn is from the findings of later Tribunals. These are extensive. It seems that the Schism War started as a series of Wizards' Wars between magi of House Diedne and the Latin houses, particularly House Flambeau. Early skirmishing was simultaneous in both the British Isles in Europe, but, given the Stonehenge Tribunal's precedent of turning a blind eye to unlawful, covenant-on-covenant Wizards' Wars, the actual outbreak of open warfare probably originated on British soil with the war between the Nameless Covenant and a now-lost Flambeau covenant called Ungulus ("the Claw"). Soon, other covenants were drawn into the conflict, which ultimately resulted in an unprecedented House-on-House Wizards' War declared by Tremere against Diedne. The Quaesitoris decided to endorse the war and Renounce the entire House Diedne. The Schism War also appears to have ended in the Stonehenge Tribunal. Llwelyn, Primus of House Diedne, and his followers staged a fierce defense in the Snowdon Mountains of Wales, a place thick with Diedne covenants. Strangely, rather than make their last stand there, the last magi of House Diedne launched a desperate counter-assault, broke through enemy lines, and fled as far as Angelsey. Pursuers lost track of the last Diedne magi there, but they found Llewelyn's final words engraved in a mystic trilothon: "We shall last as long as the wind blows hot on the backs of your necks, as long as the storms pound your tower walls, as long as the waves smash the sides of your ships, as long as the merciless sun looks down upon your abominations, sees your sins, and calls out for vengeance. We shall return to haunt you." Consensus in the Stonehenge Tribunal, and throughout the Order, is that the Renounced House was as deeply corrupt as House Tytalus. The lack of substantiating evidence is attributed to the great violence of the Schism War, which left many covenants nothing more than smoking ruins. Ascendance of the Latin Covenants (1165-1196) --------------------------------------------- There was no major reconstruction in the Stonehenge Tribunal following the Schism War. The Order's presence there was simply weakened. House Ex Miscellanea, in particular, lost its remaining political clout, and a third of its members, in the war. (It is unclear on which side House Ex Miscellanea fought; the Tribunal seems to have avoided discussing the subject.) Castrum Antiquum emerged as an influential covenant. Its members led a campaign of legal reform that especially criticized the lax enforcement of the rules of Wizards' War as contributing to lawlessness and violence. Only the Latin covenants were active in the Tribunal's public affairs, so they took complete control; they paid little attention to the solitary magi and British covenants, so their legal reforms had little impact outside the Latin sphere. Inevitably, the Latin magi came to use their dominance of the political system to legitimize infringements against the rights of British magi. The Primus Firento of House Ex Miscellanea apparently came to power after the Schism War. It is unclear whether he was Pralix's immediate successor. Motivated by a fear of becoming the next outcast House, he undertook a program to convert his House to Roman magical traditions. Firento disappeared while on a quest for the Spinning Pearls, and is presumed to have been assassinated c. 1175 by conservative elements within his own House. A few other strange disappearances marked this period. The magus Hascillion of House Jerbiton disappeared in North Wales while conducting historical research into the magical geneology of Merlin. A trio of Tremere magi disappeared while on an expedition to the Isle of Man. Both disappearances were vigorously investigated, but no conclusions were ever reached. Confusion in a Weakened Order (1197-1248) ----------------------------------------- The Welsh prince Gruffudd ap Llewelyn lay siege to Blackthorn, which was located in an old castle in southern Wales. The same prince attacked and razed the once-mighty covenant of Cad Gadu. This caused great alarm among magi of the Order, but the timing of the attack apparently prevented the Tribunal of 1199 from meeting. If any special meeting or ad hoc Wizards' Council was called, its records are not present in this collection. King Harold Godwinson lifted the siege of Blackthorn in 1200. Blackthorn is then reputed to have attacked Tagelyn covenant in early 1201, with assistance from elements of King Harold's army. Tagelyn was driven from its caves and Blackthorn moved into Tagelyn's prime location. This is the site Blackthorn occupies today. There is a maddening gap in Tribunal records from 1200-1207, but the issue appears unresolved by 1214 and was a topic of discussion for the next three Tribunals. Formal charges were never brought against Blackthorn. Since there was no evidence of magi being killed, consensus seems to be that the raid, itself, was lawful. The real legal question was whether Blackthorn had allied with Harold's army. No real evidence was ever brought against Blackthorn, but the question was not really resolved. Duke William of Normandy invaded England in 1205. This, or some other disturbance, prevented Cad Gadu from hosting the Tribunal of 1207. An unofficial note by Cad Gadu's scribe merely states that the Tribunal of 1207 was held at Lux Draconis. It must have been an unimportant meeting, since it is not cited in subsequent proceedings. In 1239, the Covenant of Lux Draconis dissolved when its last member went into permanent Wizards' Twilight. Blackthorn siezed Lux Draconis' property without legal procedure. Voluntas bitterly protested this move at the next Tribunal, but the Tribunal ruled that the Code does not address matters of salvage, and did not even attempt to verify that all member of Lux Draconis were, indeed, gone. This seems to be the origin of the rivalry between Voluntas and Blackthorn.