The Novgorod Tribunal is the Hermetic geographical designation of a vast swathe of eastern Mythic Europe; Poland east of the Oder, the lands around the Baltic, and the vast territories of the Rus. These cold lands are a crossroads of east and west, north and south, and hardy Danes can be found plying the same routes as Byzantine sophisticates. Much of the land is pagan, and except in its westernmost parts are largely unexplored and unsettled by Magi. Further eastward there lie the lands of the Mongols with their powerful cavalry and inscrutable wizards wielding strange magics.
The Order is not powerful here; only six Covenants exist within its borders, although some have tried to build here and failed. The land is riven by division and conflict both mundane and magical, and it is often a challenge for Magi to obey the Hermetic rules against interference with mortals. But, too, enforcement in these hinterlands is difficult at best, and some come here who would not find welcome elsewhere in Mythic Europe. With a history little more than two centuries old, the Novgorod Tribunal does not have long experience to draw upon like most other Tribunals. All too often the Tribunal of Novgorod has found itself embroiled in conflict and scrambling to preserve, if not its independence, then at least its survival. But as the supplies of raw vis are drying up in Central Europe, more and more magi are venturing into the untamed lands of Novgorod and the unspoiled reserves of magical power that can be found there.
The lands of Scandinavia are nominally a part of the Novgorod Tribunal, but no Hermetic Covenant has ever been successfully established there, although some have tried.
Covenants of the Novgorod Tribunal[]
- Pripet Maior, in the heart of the Pripet Marshes (from The Dragon and the Bear)
- Thousand Caves, at the edge of the Caucasus Mountains (from The Dragon and the Bear)
- Three Lakes, in Novgorod (from The Dragon and the Bear)
- Leycza, in central Poland (from The Dragon and the Bear)
- Ynglinghal, on Koltin Island in the Gulf of Finland
- The Halls of the Ancient East, far to the east
- The Vault of Typhon, in the Crimea
Sources[]
The Dragon and the Bear, the Novgorod Tribunal Sourcebook