Mythic Europe

Ars Magica Primer
Game Setting
Mythic Europe
The Order of Hermes
The Order of Hermes The Code of Hermes The Peripheral Code Hermetic Book Cycle

Mythic Europe is much like the Europe of 1220, the middle ages, but with dragons, demons, angels, and faeries all unquestionably real, and no aspect of society is untouched by myth.

-Ars Magica Fifth Edition, p. 4

Mythic Europe is the canonical setting where Ars Magica sagas take place. While closely based on early 13th century Europe, Mythic Europe deviates from history by incorporating myth, legend, and wild unabashed fantasy into the historic background.

In some respects, Mythic Europe is very similar to historical Europe. It occupies the same geographical region, its inhabitants cling to the same medieval beliefs and values, it has the same social institutions such as the Catholic Church and even specific persons such as the Holy Roman Emperor Frederic II and Pope Gregory IX.

However, Mythic Europe is awash with magic and the supernatural. The power of God is manifest, faeries bargain with mortals, demons hunger for souls, and wizards live in great towers. Ars Magica focuses on the tales of wizards, which by the nature of things tends to accentuate the Mythic elements of the setting.

Above all, Mythic Europe is not fixed. While canon presents a certain vision of Mythic Europe, with a certain level of historical veracity and a certain level of myth, storyguides and troupes are encouraged to vary from canon and historical precedents when running their own sagas.

European Powers

Main Article: Powers of Europe

Some recent history in western Europe.

The Catholic Church

Main Article: The Catholic Church

Some information known about the Catholic Church.

Social Organization

Main Article: Social Organization

Transportation

Distances

• A good walking distance for a moderately encumbered man is 20 miles per day.
• A good distance for an unencumbered man accompanying a horse carrying no more than 150 lb is 30 miles per day.
• The normal distance for any type of carrier is from 18 to 25 miles per day but this assumes a suitable route.

Carrying Capacities

• A packhorse is capable of carrying 400lb of goods.
• A two-wheeled cart ("charette") drawn by two or three horses can carry can carry between 1,200 and 1,500 lbs. This requires cleared roads and fords as a minimum.
• A four-wheeled wagon, with normally six horses, can carry 2,800 to 3,300lb. This required good roads, with bridges.

The state of the road will define whether a four-wheeled wagon can be used. It is rare that roads of sufficient quality exist for anything but short distances, except perhaps in Northern Italy.

Costs

• To move goods such as stone by land, in a large wagon, costs from 9d to 18d per ton per mile.
• Using a barge on a slow-moving navigable river costs 1d to 3d per ton per mile.

Noble Titles

Earl

Sheriff

Baron

Advocati - Also known as avoués, this is a title that represents the role of representing Church bodies, mainly abbeys and monasteries, in lay matters. Typically the Advocatus will represent the senior churchman in his capacity as feudal lord. So, for example, the churchman might be an abbot. In this case the Advocatus will act as the abbot's representative in the courts of his superior, exercise secular justice in the abbot's name in the abbatial court, and lead the retainers of the abbey to battle under the banner of the patron saint. The advocatus plays a more important part in the feudal polity of the Empire and of the Low Countries than in France.

Languages

Main Article: Languages of Mythic Europe

Mythic Europe, like the real Europe, has a plethora of languages that the characters need to navigate.

Constructing in Stone

In the 13th century, few buildings are built in stone. Anything more than a small church or manor house, rare in stone, is a major project.

Large stone buildings require a great deal of planning, labour and skill. An Architect is employed to design and plan the buidling; is highly skilled and will have previously worked on several such building before.

A Master mason is employed to oversee the planning and building; he also organises the accounts, as the construction requires a great deal of expenditure. The money for wages is normally paid to the Master mason for him to distribute, according to agreed rates. The Master mason's chief responsibility is to establish the number of men and quantity of materials needed and also to decide on the plans and the order of operations. It is likely that the Master mason has gained his experience from overseeing smaller projects before advancing onto larger undertakings such as castles.

Stone in a quarry is extracted by labourers (earning 1d per day) led in teams by Quarrymen (earning 2d per day) all under the direction of a Master quarryman (earning 3d-4d per day) . A quarryman and ten labourers can extract and roughly dress 30 cubic feet per day. The stone is usually then transported to the site where it is to be used before further work is performed on. However, some standard blocks will be cut at the quarry.

On site, rough stone is dressed into blocks, by a group of skilled men called Hewers or Stonecutters (3d per day). The finished blocks are then be passed to the Rough masons (2.5d per day) who lay the courses of the walls. When a particular shape is required, the rough stone goes to the highly skilled Stonemasons (4d per day) who carve the blocks into the exact shape and size and add any decoration that was needed. They, for example, cut the arrow-slit windows and the blocks to frame doorways.

The site will also employ a number of other craftsmen. Carpenters are needed to make the doors, window shutters, palisade fencing, bailey buildings and roofs. The carpenters also make the scaffolding necessary for the erection of the castle. Highly skilled Smiths are needed to make ironwork such as hinges and bolts, as well as many of the tools involved in construction. In addition, Labourers are required to do the fetching and carrying as well as the more menial jobs such as digging the ditches and clearing rubble.

Trade Fairs

Main Article: Trade Fairs

Trade Fairs are in the medieval world where commerce occurs at any but the most local level. They range in size and importance from local markets to huge international affairs.

The largest fairs in a region often occur in a cycle and never occur simultaneously, meaning the owners of each fair get a period of monopoly. In Western Europe there are a few notable cycles but none more important than the Champagne cycle.