Folks --
I've been adding stuff steadily to the website, so if you haven't checked it out in the last couple of days, please do so.
The newest and most important stuff is the series of essays under the Campaign Reference Materials list, headed 'The Teutonic Knights and the Massacre of Gdansk'. Please read them in full, in order (they make up a set).
The part which is not on the site yet (mainly because I want to keep the Reference Materials section completely historical, no made up bits) is the following, still nebulous. I'll have it more specifically by the weekend:
The infamous Massacre that broke the back of the Order of Hermes and the Massacre of Gdansk are one and the same. The Order convened its Grand Council (meets once a century) in Gdansk that year and many were caught, hunted down, and slaughtered by the invading Teutonic Knights. Their magic was strangely ineffective, blunted, or otherwise dispelled by unseen forces, leaving them helpless as their Grogs and Companions fell protecting them. NO MAGUS who survived the Massacre thinks it was a coincidence. Some have trouble believing that whoever was behind it would annihilate a city of 10,000 just to kill some pesky Magi, but, for the moment, there is no other explanation. The Massacre was the single most important event in the history of the Order of Hermes since its inception. You need to think about where your Magus was at the time of the Massacre -- was he alive? was he there? was he a member of the Order? how did he escape? etc. and so on.
-/\/\.