More actions
Magic Schools are famous institutions in Aloria that teach people to wield their Magic. Not all Mage characters have to be graduates of one of these Schools. However, they represent an opportunity to link up backstories with other players who are graduates of the same School. The Schools are divided into sets by geographical location and common curriculum.
Regalian Schools
All Regalian Schools teach Regalian magical theory, which is considered on the cautious side, and with a focus on reliability and safety over results. Regalia has a fraught history with Magic and Magic Repression and a majority Mundane population and government. As a result, while many of its Schools are lavishly funded, they do not cater to extreme or unsightly forms of Magic, which remain shunned.
- Altravoya: bankrolled by the powerful warlord the Iron Duke, Raffaello Lamperni, the Academy of Altravoya in Vultaro is the most liberal of the Regalian magical academies. Drawing talent from around the Archipelago and protected by Raffaello's immense influence, it has in the past decade or so since his ascension started teaching even Dark Magic and Curses that the Knighthood tries to regulate knowledge of. However, its willingness to permit study of forbidden knowledge is tempered by Regalian patriotic messaging plastered over everything. Mages who go to this School are drilled at every step to work for the State and Emperor. Arkenborn especially are a common sight at Altravoya.
- Rosaria: a major academy in the San Girobalda and San Selin regions, the Academy of Rosaria and its associated alumnus group the Rosaria Circle has a historical presence in the Regalian Capital. Expanded and protected by the influence of the de Azcoissias, local trade magnates with a history of presence in upper government, the Academy of Rosaria has a strong rehabilitation focus. With attempted outreach across large parts of the eastern Archipelago's traditionally Mage-fearing regions, it tries to buyback vulnerable Mages in hiding or ostracization to teach them in a safe environment as an alternative to giving them over to the Lothar. Many Rosaria graduates wind up in the Capital to do more of the same. There was some recent controversy after one of their headmasters, Anathema, self-outed as a Demon in disguise (and was expelled).
- Irvelle: lies in the southern islands of Basta and Irvelle, a Regal cultured (historically Ithanian) region in the western Archipelago. The Academy of Irvelle lies near to many major Celacies, Unionist religious holdings, and traditional centers of faith. As a result, it strongly prioritizes teaching Magic through Unionist theology, specifically Caan's burden and Grace's control. With this history and a very pro-Knightly attitude, Irvelle graduates tend towards the martial side, and overwhelmingly belong to the Unionist religion. The Noble House Delmotte is the historical patron of this Academy, and has paid for several lecture hall expansions and a jousting field in recent memory.
- Velincara: in southern Solleria near the large ports of Avalla-Loseia and Athentol, the Academy of Velincara is the single biggest Solvaan institution maintained by the contributions of the Solvaan Dukes. It is designed to cater to the Mist Wardens, Solleria's army, but had a dual role sheltering fugitive Aelrrigans for the century and a half that that Order was outlawed and hunted by State forces. In the modern day after a major expansion funded by the Avalleia family which controls the Mist Wardens, it has taken on some of that House's political leanings, and is an influence for pan-Elvenism and Regalian-aligned Elven diplomacy in its student body.
- Courz Montbard: is the great Ithanian mage school, adapted from a previous Allorn mage school called Melinvära. Despite the name change to Ithanian, it has much continuity with its previous Elven curriculum, and retains many old Elven teachers who have been alive since the Cataclysm. It is here that the skilled War Mages who fill much of de Gosselin's armies and maintain Ithania's soft power relative to the rest of the Empire are taught. Montbard is a very aristocratic school, with many of its alumni not being quite Ithanian nobility themselves since Magic is still considered a bad look for aristocrats, but those directly patronized by the noble class, with good names and clear loyalty to different parts of the Ithanian state.
- The Aelrrigan Order: most provincial Magical education in the Regalian Empire is handled by the Aelrrigan Order, whose Knight Chapters, listed on its page, are also all individual Schools ran by the Knights. Read more there about them and their ideology.
Altalar Schools
All Altalar Schools teach Allorn magical theory and its descendants, which is the oldest and longest field of Magic study. Compared to other fields of study it sits in the middle, without what they consider Regalians' over-cautious and fearful nature, but with a healthy disdain for extreme methods that get the wielder killed. Altalar Schools demand pleasant aesthetics in Magic usage and grace in Mages.
- Helëssa: sits slightly inland in the Old Quarter of the Teled city of Amontaar, seat of the Goddess Sapphora. After recent unrest and the death of the nobleman who ran its education board, it is notably taught and led by the local Princess, the daughter of the ruling Elven noble. Helëssa is considered the gold standard among Elven magic schools for civilian Magic use, with vast review boards managing the use of Magic for transportation, industry, construction, risk assessment, and more. Its combat Magic wing, while historically neglected, exponentially expanded in the last decade or two due to threats against Amontaar arising and needing to be resisted.
- Soronissë: is the old academy of the ancient Allorn capital at Ivaëlle. Half destroyed in Cataclysm and Wildering like the rest of the city, brought low by repeated Magical disasters and then burned down by the Eronidas, Soronissë is sprawled across ravine-spun bridges, half-built wings with holes in their roofs under constant reconstruction, and classes taught from the bottoms of cisterns. While during the Allorn Imperial years it taught various courtly arts, since Cataclysm it has indisputably become a War-Magic school, with graduates molded into proficient killers. Soronissë only accepts Elves who can pass as Teled, and is saturated with Allorn revanchism.
- Valsenna: is the Presenna Teled school of Magic, held in the Great Temple of Valsenna, doubling as a seminary school to train Estelley priests. While it was badly ravaged in Cataclysm, then in 120 AC by Bel-Hammon Mages stealing an Artifact, and then again in 217 AC by an Ashal Corsair raid which burned a third of it down, and then a third time in 305 AC by invading Regalians who shelled the western annex to rubble, it is still standing. Mages here are taught firmly in the scope of Estelley religious principle, the power shaped from Empress to Empress, like wine pouring from cup to cup: first Magic is used to conquer, then it is used to assert control, and then it is used to prosper.
- Mara Yl-Olon: is an underwater Finul Teled school that serves all Heritages or individual Mages who are capable of living underwater for extended periods of time. The Finul are a martial people, but a Mundane one. Their school is more exploratory, with a very broad kitchen sink curriculum that serves the differing interests of its very diverse student body. Among all the Altalar mage colleges it has a reputation as an insane party school for people with no inhibitions and a very bad sense of self-preservation, attracting large numbers of Finul soldiers as guests from the mainland who do not attend at all, but just show up to have a good time.
The four Schools below are Lanlath, Suvial, Isldar, and Kathar, respectively. While all four of these cultures despise the Allorn Empire and split off from it long ago, their Magic schools are still classified as Altalar because their basic fundamental lessons have not seriously diverged from what was written in textbooks a millennium ago when they were all still Allorn Elves.
- Lathëya: is the center of study in the Lanlath capital, Vashäel. It is highly specialized in managing the ethos of Lanlath Starbirth, meaning in effect that Lathëya is very good at teaching Mages very strongly aligned to certain Dimensions how to use those Dimensions most productively without succumbing to the pitfalls that attract Demons or put oneself at risk of Magical corruption. Like all things Lanlath, it is very philosophical as well, with graduates well-stocked with treatises on Occult history and carrying a wise, temperate, and learned air to them. The Lathëya Academy is open to non-Lanlath as well, easier to enter than the rest of Lathan, but travel is very strictly controlled.
- Jhaangar: is the primary Suvial Mage college which has two noteworthy departments, its Battlemagic department and its Demonology department. Jhaangar graduates from these two departments fiercely compete to prove that they are of more use to the Suvial state, which has been constantly at war since Cataclysm, giving it an intensely pressurized, cutthroat environment where every class, thesis, or favour is prone to immense undercutting to gain the slightest advantage against fellow students. Its graduates retain a fierce loyalty to the institution after graduation, and it is responsible for groups like the international Tiger's Paw mercenary company existing, which often goes talent scouting there.
- Kalam: is an old Draconism Aurora worshiper monastery whose population declared loyalty to Ravaal during the Isldar civil war as Rexit, and therefore became Evolism worshipers instead. As these Rexit rapidly figured out their Magic during the Civil War, Kalam became a sort of nexus for arcane study, with the most powerful Rexit mages from the important Isldar clans flocking there to share knowledge. With the War's end, some of the Aurora worshipers have returned on pilgrimage, leading to an uncomfortable contrast between the necromantic Hollow Mages raising skeletons in the ravine-caves and the Aurora worshipers death staring them on their journey to the plateau-top above.
- Korkhaar is the largest Kathar academy in the capital of the Dread Empire, Rokh'anlaar. As an institution directly patronized by the Dread Empresses, Korkhaar functions more like an extension of the Dread government itself, flush with Argentum, Demons in disguise, Arken in disguise, and enough cultic backstabbing, sacrificing, and appeals to higher powers to drive an outsider mad within days. That said, Korkhaar is the only Magic school to continue its specialty from the Allorn days, which is teaching its students how to navigate Demon Deals without falling prey to Demons, as many times as possible. Korkhaar graduates are skilled intrigue wielders and charismatic deal-makers who can get out of anything on top.
Other
Some Cultures and Heritages do not have major Magical institutions, even Magic-positive ones, but that does not mean that they do not use Magic as well. Rather, for Cultures like the Velheim Ailor, Songaskian Dragonkin, Isldar Elves, Maquixtl Elves, or Neferu Asha, their methods of teaching Magic often flow much more directly from mentor to student as either familial tradition or religious custom kept in the guard of priests. Major teaching institutions with standardized curricula would not work because their needs are so diverse that unifying them into standard classes would take more time and money than the trouble is worth.