Founded: 817
Status: Autumn
The tallest summit in Europe, Mont Joux, is the highest in a ridge of three peaks. It was named Mons Iovis by the Romans, in honor of Jupiter Pennius (Peonn), the Celtic deity of Alpine storms. In the Eleventh Century, the blessed Bernard of Menthon, founder of the Alpine hospices, chained the “demon” worshiped as Jupiter on the second-highest peak, or forced it to throw itself to its death from a cliff. This peak is now widely known as Mont Maudit, the “Accursed Mountain”. No one has ever climbed to the summit of either peak, and the local priests suggest its is unlucky to try.
Early in the history of the Order, the maga Lucia, a filia of Merinita, came to Montjoux searching for the Temple of Jupiter. She was disappointed, since it had been repeatedly ransacked during the barbarian invasions of the Empire. A skilled combat maga, she decided to take out her frustration on the local faeries, gathering sufficient vis to make her travel worthwhile.
During her campaign she discovered a vast regio linked to Bright Winter, and ruled by the White Lady, a faerie queen skilled in illusion. The early Merinita magi thought little of faeries, so Lucia killed the queen, and claimed the kingdom as her own, systematically exterminating the queen’s servants for the vis their bodies contained. Although she had no initial intention of founding a covenant, she spared a few souled half-breeds, since some of the regio’s vis sources required attendants. A decade later, her apprentice, made magus, came to the mountain and founded a covenant. Since then it has grown into a thriving, if distinctly odd, community.
The death of Peonn, who the magi here think was a powerful faerie, closed the regio’s links to outside world. The covenant’s people were trapped here for about five years, although their histories indicate that local time traveled more swiftly. When they found a way to relink their regio to the mortal world, the covenant expanded rapidly, as it claimed vis sources in the area previously protected by Peonn.
Current Relations with Andorra
- Unknown.
