How Witch Mountain Came To Be

 When Cuaidaitheoir ex Miscellanea was an apprentice, he understood little of the difference between the magics of his native Hibernia and the magic that his parens Mohan was teaching him. Already quite elderly when he took the young magus under his wing, Mohan was one of the Lineage of Pralix, yes: but he had uncovered some of the lost secrets of Diedne magic himself, and strove not to prejudice his student against them. He taught him instead in the Hibernian way--that all magic has power, and that all knowledge has value, and even the unGifted have things to teach. 

 As Cuaidaitheoir grew older, however, he learned that he needed to hide the source of his techniques, and some of his most potent abilities, from his sodales. This caused the young Gael a great deal of consternation, as he did not precisely understand why a centuries-over war would prejudice these wise men who practiced Hermetic magic. But rather than stew on it, he instead searched for a solution, and hit upon the idea of a covenant where all traditions of magic could be preserved--turned to Hermetic purposes, certainly, for the Order would inevitably dominate even the most distant parts of Europe. But preserved nevertheless. Even his Diedne teachings could be repackaged as a unique discovery and passed on to his own lineage. 

He began speaking of some of these ideas, in limited, circumspect fashion, at his temporary home of Cad Gadu. Some were against the idea, arguing that the Ordo Miscellanea was already the home of such things, and to let the practitioners of traditions keep to their own. But others, especially among the more youthful, were intrigued. One in particular was Boagane filius Curragh, partially because his own tradition, the Damhadh-Duidsan, were so mistrusted in the order. The young giant, well over six feel tall, and the 5"8 Cuaidaitheoir made an odd pair, walking around the covenant in animated and hushed conversation. In early 1218, a third was added to their group: the maloccha Cornelia, ambitious and clever, who saw in Cuaidaitheoir's idea a path to power. She had learned of the tentative legal status of Cad Gadu, and dreamed of perhaps turning this center of knowledge proposed into a new domus maga for the Ordo Miscellanea, even imagining herself as prima. And so she encouraged the idea, and recruited Lisovyk, a newly-arrived Pharmacopeian from the east. 

With Hibernia chosen as the home of their new covenant and their bags and books packed, funds and vis raised from their parens and friends for assistance, they set out for Meath--but not before a recently-Gauntleted Beast Mistress, called Gamayun, hurriedly joined their group, eager to escape her cruel parens. And so the five joined together, and were joined in turn by a band of helpful mundanes recruited from friends, as well as those in Drogheda convinced by Cornelia's honeyed words. Altogether, it was a group of thirty-five souls that arrived in Loughcrew as winter turned to spring in 1219. 

Among their number was the fian, or turb, led by Ciardha, a young knight and Gaelic nobleman, and made up of five doughty cattlemen, skilled with horses and bludgeons, and six hunters, who respectively maintained the livestock and hunted for food for the covenant when not in service. In addition, there were two stonemasons, four assorted craftsmen, three cooks, a stabler, and three laborers, in addition to Eoin, who managed the covenfolk on behalf of the magi. As well, a Lancashire witch, Leonora, had joined them in the crossing, while a monk of Kells named Nuallán of the Coill Trí agreed to serve as steward. A Norwegian smith by the name of Ragnvald served as forgemaster, while Gallchobar, a wandering bard, agreed to trade their goods in the markets and elsewise bring news from all Hibernia in his wandering. 

On New Year's Day, the oath of charter was sworn by the five magi, and each received a position as officer of the council. While a democratic system had been agreed upon, each also agreed that to summon the council for every issue would be inefficient, and so responsibilities were divided among them in the form of offices. Boagane became the Treasury Officer, Cornelia the External (dealing with mundanes and the Order), Cuaidaitheoir the Realm (dealing with the four realms, as well as hedge wizards), Lisovyk the Local (dealing with improving the quality of the covenant and general living standards), and Gamayun, despite her lack of a great deal of education, as the Library Officer thanks to her potency with Animal magic. The council agreed that none should rule the covenant, and rather that a disceptator, or spokesman, would be selected by lot to lead each council meeting among them. In addition, the covenfolk were organized into a guild to ease communication, led by Eoin, the chamberlain. 

This all agreed, the prospective site of the covenant was explored. A strong aura--level 5--dominated the five cairns of Witch Mountain, with Cuaidaitheoir noting a regio entrance in the southwestern cairn that he could not figure out how to access.  Resolving to deal with it later, he and Boagane left the other magi to work on their homes and manage the covenfolk while they found a suitable cathach, or marker, for their covenant, in keeping with Hibernian tradition. After some questing and exploring, they discovered the tomb of a Fomóir in Ulster, and raided it, taking away a gigantic skull which, while non-magical, clearly showed monstrous heritage and would serve as a suitable cathach. Upon returning to Witch Mountain, it was hung on a great post outside where the walls were being built.

The central cairn, stripped of all bones and treasures by looters long ago, proved to be a perfect place for the central part of the covenant, serving as a natural fortress, and so curtain walls and mural towers were raised around it, the magi assisting with Terram magic. Then tunnels were dug deeper into the living stone within the central cairn, forming four laboratories--with Gamayun's being built in a small stone building within the walls, as she preferred not to live underground--as well as a collective dining area, vis and fund storage, and library within the tunnel system, again with Terram being heavily utilized. In their excavations, Lisovyk discovered a very interesting thing: the first vis source the magi had encountered--the skeleton of a long-dead poet that produced a poetic phrase, crystallized into pure ice, every season in mystical fashion. This phrase, he found quickly, could be converted to Creo vis, providing a handy source for the fledgling covenant. 

 The excavation complete for now, the magi set about establishing their laboratories for the last two seasons of the year, while eighty head of cattle--as well as ten horses--were purchased to serve as a source of income and supplies for the covenant, and a mining shaft dropped outside the cairns, where the laborers of the covenant began to mine out the native greenstone. It was with great ceremony at the Winter Solstice that Cuaidaitheoir led the covenant's first casting of the Aegis of the Hearth spell, covering out to the curtain walls--and importantly leaving the cathach unguarded, as per Hibernian Code. 

As 1219 become 1220, Witch Mountain was on the road to recognition in the Hibernian Tribunal, and was already beginning to bustle, although with the covenfolk living outside the walls of the natural fortress, security was perhaps not the greatest.