Founded: 802
Status: Winter
Urbs Rubra is the oldest covenant of the tribunal. It is situated in the ancient city at Petra, from which it takes its name (Urbs Rubra means “the Red City”). To reach the complex one has to pass through a deep gorge, before coming to the junction of a number of valleys. In this area there are a number of caves, rooms and buildings constructed over the centuries firstly by an ancient race called the Nabateans, then the Romans and Byzantines. The most recent building work was carried out by the Crusaders, who constructed a castle on a hill deep within the complex. However, they abandoned this castle shortly after the battle of Hattin in 1187, and the members of the covenant are now left largely undisturbed.
Fade and Wraith, who are husband and wife, are the oldest magi of the tribunal, and theoretically at least, Wraith should be the praeco. However, they are served and protected by a community of jinn, living in a number of huge stone blocks in the entrance gorge, who as time has passed have become more and more protective of their failing masters, to the point that now they will not allow any visitors to see them. Unfortunately, many of these jinn are so powerful that no Hermetic magus has as yet been able to force their way past them. Most magi believe that Fade and Wraith have been slain by their servants, who maintain the illusion of their existence for their own obscure reasons. No one has been able to find out for certain, though. Fade and Wraith themselves are mostly senile and nearing Final Twilight, so they pay no attention whatsoever to tribunal affairs.
