The Covenant of Surren's Rune is a largish, sprawling manor of glossy, black rock, situated on a hill near an escarpment, overlooking the sea. It is located near the town of Port Surren on the island of Athoar.

The gaily colored sills of the many windows in the manor break up the otherwise brooding appearance of the manor. The black rock used in the manor is almost transparent, like high-quality obsidian, and is quite obviously not natural. No other rock on the island is even nearly as black as that rock, and it is quite obvious for any astute observer that the manor was probably raised from the bones of the earth by magic - and powerful magic, at that.

The cobbled road leading up to the Covenant from the town of Port Surren is cobbled with stones of many colors, and is almost magically durable. If one stares at the road from a vantage point for a long time, one can almost, but not quite, see a complex, weaving pattern that may or may not have some deeper meaning. Or, one will see a random splattering of color, further breaking up the dark, imposing shape of the manor.

The manor itself has many wings, positioned roughly in a five-edged star shape if looked at from on high. Its centre is a rather large, pentagonal main building, with a large, open atrium in the middle, completely paved with large, pentagonal slabs of highly polished black rock. In the exact centre of that atrium, there exists a black slab of rock five times the size of the other large, pentagonal slabs.

This centre slab of the atrium is veined with myriad of colored lines, said to glow when it is dark in the atrium - which it seldom is, due to the faintly glowing magelight balls hovering in always-changing patterns in the atrium. This centre slab is Surren's Rune, and the theoretical origin of the Covenant.

In addition to the manor itself, there exists a few low, wooden buildings built some two hundred yards from the manor. This is where the serving staff - gardeners, visiting scribes and the like - are lodging. An almost fortress-like structure of expertly dressed stone closer to the manor notes the place where the Defenders of the Hearth, a dwarven clan-of-clans, make their living, close, but not too close to the manor which they protect.

Some small, cultured fields show where various herbal gardens are located, but there are no large, sprawling fields of any sort near the manor. The manor is a place of learning and magic, not farming.

The presence of the manor and its occasionally fairly powerful residents does not mean that there are no wild spots near the manor itself. For instance, beneath the steep escarpment near the manor, where the sea incessantly pounds the soft rock, there are deep caves and caverns leading deep into the island rock itself.

Though the known mouths into these caverns are covered with stationary wards and barrier spells, the occasional curious apprentice explores these caverns. Some does not come back. Others report of strange stone constructions and weird creatures. So far, the Lords have not taken notice. Besides, it keeps the adventuresome apprentices from other mischief, and the occasional mishap is nothing more than can be expected.

A scattering of islets - nothing more than large rocks in the sea, really - can be found a few hundred yards out from the shoreline near the manor. In earlier times, it was considered quite fashionable for the Lords to live there instead of in the manor itself.

Nowadays, the crumbling ruins of various towers and other, more exotic forms of abode can be seen on various of these islets. The only Lord that currently resides there, is the Lord of Transportation, Lord Myanmet Thurr, his affinity for water leading him to live as close to the sea as he can come. His daily commuting to and fro the Covenant itself on his winged, endweomered clockwork whale is something that many visitors find intensely fascinating.

The Covenant of Surren's Rune is named after its founder, the Diviner Surren, and his greatest creation, the Rune bearing his name. It is said that he raised the manor itself from the very bones of the earth in but one night, but that he labored mightily for nine years, nine months, and nine days to create the Rune, which was to become his crowning touch.

It is uncertain when the Covenant was established, but the records of the Covenant itself date it as being there at least five hundred years ago. Most scholars agree, however, that the Covenant is probably nearing its millennial anniversary soon, though it has not always been awarded the high esteem the locals award it today.

Originally, only the centre manor itself was erected by Surren himself, the various wings of the manor being added by various Lords when the Covenant outgrew its boundaries. Today, the manor is home to about fifty apprentices of various levels of skill, with a number of about a score graduates dropping by to teach classes, do research, or share spells with the Covenant's Lords of Magery.

Surren's Rune was created by Surren in order to warn of some cataclysmic event that he expected would happen in the future, and hopefully the mages of that day could use the Rune to help prevent that cataclysmic event. This, of course, is common knowledge of the apprentices and graduates of the Covenant, yet their strictures prevent them from discussing this with others.

One of the more notable events in the Covenant's long but undistinguished history, is the Clash of Elements, a battle that happened during the third Mage War, some four centuries ago. During this battle, all but two of the then-reigning Lords were killed, and three-quarters of the manor itself was destroyed in the fierce magical battle. That the Lords managed to resist the Tyrants is in itself incredible, considering the vast arrays of powers that the Tyrants possessed - according to legend.

Some say that the Tyrants came because of the Rune, and some say the Lords repelled the Tyrants and their forces due to the Rune. However that may be, occasional strange, magical incidents that happen near the manor can be ascribed to that occasion, as well as a clearly defined, star-shaped wild magic area near the manor.

The Covenant of Surren's Rune function much as a wizard's training ground, allowing apprentices showing an aptitude for magic to find their specialization, and to develop their fledgling expertise in magic further. Furthermore, the Covenant act as a stabilizing factor in local power-games as well, as noone (but noone) wants to be on the Lords' bad side.

The Covenant's Lords of Magery use the manor as a way to research and develop their own powers in relative peace, in exchange for sometime tedious spellcasting in the annual Ritual of Retracing, as well as having to teach classes of young (and not so young) apprentices.

The full extent of the true function of the Rune and its Ritual of Retracing is perhaps not known to anyone alive today. However, the current Lord of Farsight, the Diviner Szospret Lynnart suspects that the Rune is a sort of lock, or magical detection device that is connected to some sort of planar struggle against a powerful, if obscure, magical force, and that the Ritual of Retracing strengthens the Rune.

The Covenant of Surren's Rune has a fairly strict structure for how they handle magic. Obviously, the Lords have the right to pass new edicts, as well as loosen old ones when a Council decides to do so. Here, however, is a list of the current tenets and strictures of the Covenant of Surren's Rune.

The Lords do not have any official codex restricting their behavior, though a gentleman's agreement exist restricting their use of magic, as well as guiding their power struggles within the Covenant, using heated discussion instead of powerful spells as their weapon of choice when defending their views in various matters.