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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 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.
- 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 from 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. 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:
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:
- Jhaangar:
- Kalam:
- Korkhaar
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.