A Tribunal is a traditional gathering of mages from the Order of Hermes. The term is used in two distinct senses, for both general gatherings and for legal proceedings. Both are regulated by the Code of Hermes and the Peripheral Corrigenda.
Tribunal Ordinary[]
When a mage is accused of wrongdoing, a tribunal of at least six of his peers is convened to pass judgement. For matters concerning a single house, the tribunal may be drawn solely from that house; for inter-House disputes, House Quaesitor usually adjudicates, though mages from additional, uninvolved houses may be invited to sit on the tribunal as well. For a capital crime, the tribunal must consist of twelve mages. (A sentence of Gilgul can only be issued by a unanimous vote of the Primi of all the Houses of the Order.)
The verdict of a Tribunal Ordinary can be appealed, depending on who called it: an internal verdict might be appealed to the house's Primus or Prima, while an inter-House dispute could be appealed to the leaders of House Quaesitor or a Grand Tribunal.
Grand Tribunal[]
Every three years, the Order convenes a Grand Tribunal featuring three delegates from each House to discuss business affecting the order as a whole. While severe criminal misconduct (such as the transformation of House Tremere into vampires) may be the matter of a Grand Tribunal, other administrative business usually dominates.
After the Week of Nightmares in 1999, so many senior members of the Order were dead or missing that holding a Grand Tribunal was functionally impossible.
Other Tribunals[]
Apprentices are initiated fully into the Order as Tribunals of Initiation. While this theoretically should take place at a Grand Tribunal, apprentices rarely want to wait three years for their initiation, so Tribunals of Initiation are often called in the intervening period for the express purpose of welcoming a new mage into the Order.
The First and Second Mistridge Tribunals took their name from the Hermetic practice, though these were inter-Tradition meetings not governed by Hermetic law.