Well, under Lydia's prompting, I decided to work on the whole Ragusa/Rock history, to help work out Giovanni's histroy with the covenant and his attitude towards Marius. It doesn't look good.
Anyway, this is all my humble idea of what's happened in the last thirty years, according to the small clues left us. It is all public knowledge among the Consilium members. Let this be the last retcon...
1215-- Marco Allodante is made first Lighthouse keeper on the Rock
1224-- Allodante saves the then Count of Ragusa, and a grateful Count gives the Rock to him and his decendants (in perpetuo)
1297-- Vaticanatus comes to Ragusa, first mage in the area for a long time. He opens up shop in Ragusa, looking for his perfect mate and for a little power and cash. He begins to interfer in the history of Ragusa, helping this and that merchant. The ninth Count of Ragusa ignores the astrologer, who tries to bring the count into his sphere of influence
1298-- "Vatick" predicts disaster for the Venetians in the latest war with Genoa in the Adratic. After the Battle of Gurzola, not far from Ragusa, he is proved right, and those that listened to him profit. Coincidence? We may never know. The Ninth Count gets his horoscope read, as well as getting his two sons'. Vatick's star reaches its peak.
1299-- With the weakening of Venetian power in the area, Montenegran raiders begin a decade of terror. Some of the first victims are the entire Allodante clan, who had moved to the mainland after the closing of the Lighthouse. Only a small grandniece Lidija remains as their heir.
1301-- Little Vatick, a.k.a. Vasha is born. The Count finds that after the astrologer's wife's death in childbirth, the astrologer is unwilling to cast major predictions anymore.
1302-- Marco d'Iago di Philippi is born. The Count dedicates his grandchild to the Hospitallers who saved his father's life on St. Louis' Crusade, to make sure that his second son Iago's claim isn't strengthened over his first son Aristecchio's by having an heir first. Iago protests, but when the Bishop insures that Marco will have lands to administer, such that those lands will not pass out of di Philippi hands, he agrees. Marco is to be sent to Cyprus in 1312, when he will first be old enough.
1304-- The Montenegran raids reach their peak when they kill Iago and a retinue of his father's men. The Rector of the Senate and Bishop of Ragusa complain to the Count, who has now only two heirs. The Count's heir, Aristecchio, begins a lifelong campaign against the Montenegrans.
1306-- After the death of his father, Aristecchio becomes Count, recognized by the Doge of Venice and the Rector of the Ragusan senate.
1308-- Order massacred at Gdansk.
1310-- Marius comes to Ragusa, and begins the rise to power which is the repeat of Vatick's thirteen years ago. Vatick, now truly a non-interventionist, warns Marius of the danger, and finds the man too paranoid to be trusted. He hides the existance of the Rock's magic aura from Marius. Marius, finding Vatick the kind of fool who got the Order destroyed, ignores him, and befriends the Count, joining his court directly. The ward Marco meets his first wizard at age 8.
1312-- When the time comes, Count Aristecchio refuses to send Marco to the Hospitallers until they are cleared of any involvement with the Templars, who are on Trial in France. He compromises with the Rector and Bishop who point out his obligation to the Church by picking a Churchman, the Deacon di Serra, to administer the lands for him and his ward. Thus the Count keeps his control over the lands a little longer. Marius' influence here raises Vatick's anger who warns Marius again. Marius turns the Count's ear forever away from his father's astrologer.
1314-- Marius learns of the aura on the Lighthouse property, and convinces the Count it would be the perfect place for a Ferali training ground and headquarters. The Count moves to claim it, and Vatick, attempting to block Marius' power grab, anonymously brings the case of the Allodantes to the attention of the Rector. The Rector upholds Lijida's claim, much to the dismay of the Count. After consultation with Marius, the Count proposes a compromise: a marriage between his nephew, Marco, and Lidija. With, of course, Lidija's dowry being the Rock, for the Count to administer as Marco's guardian. However, the Bishop of Ragusa shoots this down by reminding Aristecchio of Marco's promised monkhood, which the Count is late for. Temporarily blocked, as the Senate takes over the wardship of Lidija, the Count and Marius move to prove her their ward as liege lord. They raise a tax the young girl cannot hope to pay in order to claim she is in default of her feudal duties, so they can reclaim the lands.
1315-- Tariq stumbles into the fight when he comes into the area and finds the Rock. Vatick, again unwilling to confront Marius over the Rock and interfer with mortal affairs on behalf of Lidija, suddenly finds someone who can. Tariq stands up to Marius, claiming the Rock as his own. With Vatick's use of his old powers as an officiating Quaesitor, Marius is forced to conceed that even he couldn't take on two magi at once (unknowing Tariq will not use magic). As a result, Vatick rules that Marius is forbidden to use the Rock as long as Tariq inhabits it. With the main reason for taking the Rock gone for Marius, he withdraws his support of the Count's case. Without Marius' scholarly lawyering, the Count is unable to prevent the Senate's wardship. And Tariq manages to pay off the first year of taxes, and thus earns the Rock for himself, Marius and the Count are thwarted, and old Vatick insures a halt to Marius' rise in mundane affairs.
1316-- When the Trial of the Templars ends, Marco is finally sent off to Rhodes.
1317-- Elijah comes to the Rock, and with his council, convinces Tariq to start using magic again. They found the Consilium. When they approach Vatick, he refuses join, as he will not give up his vow of non-interference, as he might have to break his oath to save the Consilium. However, he declares as a Quaesitor that the Consilium is an official covenant of the Order, whatever that means in the days after Gdansk. His proclamation remains with the Consilium to this day (so Cain can wave it at the Terginium, should they try to undo it).
1320-- Marco, now Fra Giovanni, Hospitaller, returns to his lands, to find them much reduced. Between the Deacon, unwilling to lose the management and income of these lands he has administered, and Marius, still paranoid of the Knights of Christendom, they persuade the Count to turn over a minimal amount of the donation only to his nephew. Giovanni takes what he can get.
1321-- Three incidents with his neighbor the Deacon cause Giovanni to take up his claim over the lands of the Donation. The third incident, in which Giovanni protects a Serbian who asked for sanctuary, enflames the Count, as the Serbian has been attacking the Count's lands as well. The deacon petitions to the Bishop of Ragusa, who declares the sanctuary void and claims the prisoner, turning him over to the secular authorities, i.e. the Count. Giovanni and his uncle stop speaking, and Giovanni continues his policy of aiding even the Montenegrans who visit his hospice on the lands which use to be the Count's.
1322-- Early in the year, Montenegran raiders attack the hospice and the lands which support it. They massacre every living soul in the area with the notable exception of Giovanni, who appears a day later at the Bishop's in Ragusa. Everyone is horrified by this incident, and even more so when the Deacon di Serra accuses Giovanni of cowardice, claiming that he knows a witness who saw the young Hospitaller running away while his men were slaughtered. When put to the question, Giovanni refuses to explain why he survived. Two of the Count's Ferali, who would have recognized Giovanni, place him at the scene. The Bishop has no choice but to conclude Giovanni has broken his oaths, since he refuses to tell what happened. He turns Giovanni over to the canonical courts, to await trial.
Two travelling Hospitallers, however, persuade the courts that any punishment is theirs to give, as Giovanni has betrayed his oath to their order. They declare that Giovanni is disgraced, demoted from Knight, and bound to serve the area alone until he prove himself again. They then abandon their Order's claim on the lands in order to make up for the embarrassment to the Church. The Deacon di Serra is made their custodian again.
The Count, worried that a Giovanni freed of oaths becomes a contender for his title, quickly disowns his nephew at his trial, claiming the lad's disgrace is too much for him to remain a di Philippi. Until such time as he undoes his disgrace, Giovanni is no heir at all.
Turning to his old fiance, Giovanni finds refuge and a place to hold his new mission at the Rock, angering the Count still further. Marius takes out his frustration of the whole thing plus Vatick's old denial of his Rock claim out on Vatick's apprentice, convincing Vatick the Gauntlet Vasha faces is too weak when asked. Vasha fails his first Gauntlet as as a result.
1323-- Vasha passes his Gauntlet and takes the mage name Versipellus, confirmed by Marius.
It would have also been nice for Tariq to take Lidija's case to court in Ragusa, reducing the tax, but I doubt the Senate would have reacted to a non-noble Saracen mage positively. Thus I figured Tariq blocked the main person behind the Count's take-over with the Code.
Giovanni knows Marius is afraid of Knights-- he lived with the mage from age 8 to age 14. He also knows his uncle isn't smart enough to have come up with all this on his own, and that the Ferali are Marius' doing. Thus besides the Deacon, he blames Marius for his disgrace-- and the massacre of his knights. Perhaps he even sees that Marius might have slaughtered the hospice knights in some kind of revenge act against the destroyers of the Order, eye-for-an-eye, from growing up learning from the man. Marius need not hate Giovanni, but he most likely hates what the boy has become, and fears the presence of one of that conspiracy of the Church. It's going to be a pleasant trip to Belgrade...
Bill