Chantry
A chantry is a place of magical learning, where mages join together to study and practice the mystic arts. A solitary mage may maintain a chantry, but more commonly, a cabal shares in the duties and rewards that such a place brings.
A cabal's chantry can take nearly any form. It can be a noble's ancestral home or a small mud building in a village. A chantry need not even be a building per se; any space in which the cabal can safely work their spells qualifies. A cave on a rocky coastline serves as well as a hidden oasis in the desert.
Building a chantry is similar to building a Domain (see Dark Ages: Vampire, page 154-155). Points spent on the Background can either make the chantry larger or more secure, but can have other effects as well. Each point of Chantry in a pool does one of the following:
• Increases the size of the chantry, as indicated below.
• Makes the chantry more secure, increasing the difficulty to break in by 1 per point spent.
• Diminishes the Aura of any cabal member on the grounds. For each point thus spent, the cabal member's Aura diminishes as if she had one less dot in her Foundation (so, if a mage has a Foundation of 3 but two points have been spent to diminish Auras, the mage's Aura is only as strong as if she had a Foundation of 1 while she is on the chantry grounds). Mages who are not members of the cabal do not receive this benefit.
• Makes the chantry a part of the surrounding "community." If no points are spent in this way, the Commoners in the area trade stories and rumors about what goes on in that strange workshop (or whatever the chantry happens to resemble). The more point spent to "normalize" the chantry, the more accepted the place is and the less damaging the gossip that flies about it.
Although many chantries house crays from which the mages may draw energies and sanctums where they can safely practice their arts, these things are not automatically granted by purchasing the Chantry Background. All this Background grants the mage(s) is the physical space to use for magical study.
● -- A small home and perhaps a farm. It's not much, but it's yours. Enough room for 1-2 characters to live comfortably.
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As with Domain, Chantry ratings of over 5 are possible. If the players wish to own a chantry larger than what five dots would buy them, the Storyteller should work with them to decide what kind of accommodations their characters have.
