Arcane Seminaries

The Arcane Seminaries are a Bastonian institution of higher learning established by Sylvestrite orders of the Church of Bastonia for the dual purposes of providing magical education and serving as a place of magical research. Though few in number, these institutions form the core of arcane understanding in mainstream Bastonian culture. Abroad, they are sometimes known as the "Western Schools of the Ars Magica", a systemic understanding of arcane magic promulgated, originally, by San Sylvester and Camus Icanus. Among Bastonians, however, opinions of the schools are more mixed. Non-spellcasting Bastonians view their existence with suspicion, as do many hedge wizards, independent sorcerers, and so forth.

History

"It is always possible the records are incomplete."

- Proverb of the Azurejays, Scholar-Knights of San Sylvester

This article is incomplete and will require additional work.

The first of the Arcane Seminaries was the Schola Turris, the tower and laboratory of Sylvester of Zeemarch. Though already functioning in the capacity of a minor center for magical education (as Sylvester was known to take apprentices, even in life), the early Sylvestrites retroactively apply the year of AB 98 as its foundation year - the year San Sylvester was rewarded for his efforts with divine apotheosis. The Schola Turris, known to most as Sylvestri Point (which is the name of the entire city that has grown up around it), is the oldest and most famous of the surviving magical institutions in Bastonia, the first of the Arcane Seminaries, and the headquarters for the Blue Curia, one of the largest Sylvestrite orders.

Facilities

While no two Arcane Seminaries operate in exactly the same way (unsurprising, given the fuzzy edges of the arcane sciences), there are a few commonalities that can be said to be true of all Arcane Seminaries in terms to the facilities available for students, faculty, and in most cases, alumni. The precise architectural style of these schools tends to vary with their year of foundation. Additionally, most tend to be significantly physically removed from the community they are nominally a part of - within a day's walk, usually, but not within the range you could expect a fire to spread. The main exception to this latter convention is of course the Schola Torris at Sylvestri Point, for which the name of the town and the seminary have become largely synonymous.

Most Arcane Seminaries are fortified constructions, usually minor castles in their own right, though rarely militarily impressive ones. The most common configuration is a central tower and a small variety of outbuildings within a single walled-off bailey, and after the foundation of the Osmic Tower, many seminaries constructed thereafter borrowed the convention of a hexagonal wall.

In terms of amenities, the schools offer comparatively few. Most grounds include a chapel (almost invariably directly dedicated to San Sylvester), a small stables, and attendant outbuildings usually reserved for storage. (The Schola Torris is famous in particular for having a small tavern in its courtyard). Extensive gardens both in the baily and outside the baily are often common, and inner gardens often contain either collections of exotic plants or contemplative spaces for various arcane practices. It's not uncommon to find workshops for the preparation of hides into velum and parchment on the grounds of such seminaries, and doing this work is not an uncommon task for novices.

The most common living arrangement in Arcane Seminaries are cells. Students, Faculty, and usually even novices are granted small cells consisting of living and study quarters. As one moves up in the ranks of the seminary one attends, their living arrangements become more comfortable and spacious. Apprentice wizards usually work the laboratories of the masters they study under, but Journeymen usually have small laboratories as part of their own cells. Most seminaries include libraries and lecture spaces as part of their towers, as well.

Through arcane means, these towers are often taller and sturdier than similar constructions built purely of stone throughout Bastonia - so much so that tall towers have become somewhat synonymous with the practices of wizardry and are usually constructed to serve as personal libraries even by completely non-magical landlords.

Funding

"It is always possible the records are incomplete."

- Proverb of the Azurejays, Scholar-Knights of San Sylvester

This article is incomplete and will require additional work.

Curricula

Prior Education and Admissions

While any of the seminaries (much like their ecclesiastical counterparts) is fundamentally free to set its own requirements for admission, there are a few basic requirements. The applicant must be free of any current criminal proceedings, and capable of demonstrating the ability to read and write (Bastonian is mandatory, elvish is usually desired). The applicant must also demonstrate an appropriate attitude of curiosity and a willingness to learn, especially if applying purely as a Modo Arcanus student. Students with other spellcasting backgrounds, such as latent or recently-awakened Modo Potens spellcasters, must additionally demonstrate that they are capable of both summoning up their powers at will, and restricting their free use - the latter is usually done through a character reference. In general, applicants must have "reached the age of summary maturity" - in human applicants and practical terms, this means they are expected to be legal adults, and therefore at or over the age of 18. This relatively high age for admission is justified by the hazards of working with arcane magic in less than ideal conditions.

While there is no social class requirement for admission, most peasants do not meet these application requirements on their own, and wizardry is seen, much like the church, as an outlet for the younger children of merchants and nobles, though few desire the lifestyle. Peasant wizards, however, are not unheard of; on occasion, one manages to impress an existing wizard, knight, or minor noble enough to obtain the character necessary to make a proper application.

Admission to the seminaries is not free. The student (or their family), if accepted, must bear a considerable cost in gold or in kind, to be outfitted as a novice, replace their portion of the reagents the school uses, and for various tools and accoutrements. Students at these seminaries rarely afford their own libraries (beyond simple, personal spell-books, known as Compendia), but all of the established seminaries have fine libraries.

Once accepted to the school, students (known as novices) are now sworn to the school's service for a term of a year and a day. Over that time, they are expected to complete a certain basic level of education in order to qualify as apprentices and remain after the school. During this period, departing the school prematurely without leave is as much grounds for dismissal from the school as violating any of the rules of the school itself would be - in practical terms the novices are as much novices pledged to a religious order as they are students in a system of higher education.

Requirements for Graduation

In most seminaries, the education of novices is all but entirely nonmagical. Novices may be taught a small number of utility cantrips from the Via Artificia, but for the most part the education of novices focuses on three serial fundamentals: shoring up missing education in languages (including the ability to read magical notation), religious education, and an introduction to ethics. These studies are formal, delivered in lecture-fashion intermixed roughly-evenly with periods of work. In most seminaries, the novitiate are responsible for a great volume of mundane work - both the excusable-as-training, such as recopying old or damaged texts; and the practical, such as the preparation of meals and cleaning of rooms. In order to have successfully completed their novitiate, an aspirant must pass the personal examination of at least one faculty wizard, who is willing to accept them as an apprentice.

As an Apprentice, the student gains considerable latitude in what they are willing to learn. Master Wizards in any of the "via" of the Ars Magica can grant the title of "journeyman" to any of their apprentices at any time (usually at the cost of having demonstrated the appropriate mastery). Once an apprentice has obtained journeyman status in any one school, it is at their discretion whether to continue with the school or not. Additionally, apprentice students are often sent afield by their masters for further study. Many journeymen choose to remain at the school until they have collected the status of journeymen in most or all of the Vias, at least among those taught at the school. However, even being recognized as a Journeyman of any (or even all) of the Vias does not confer the official status of master. Once minted a Journeyman, the wizard is permitted to (and in fact, required to) create and empower their Staff of Office - at this point, they are officially "fully" a wizard, but may not take apprentices. During this time, education also continues on practical matters. Demonstration of magical aptitude is rarely enough; apprentices wishing to be "graudated" to Journeman usually have to demonstrate an appropriate grip on ethics and philosophy, as well as a variety of mundanely-practical skills also taught at the school, such as history, riding, bookbinding, writing, and so on.

After graduating, on the other hand, is another matter. The Dean Prior of each Seminary has the right to set an examination, or delegate that examination to any of their subordinate Master Wizards, which a journeyman must pass to be recognized as master in a particular Via. This sounds much more exciting than it is - even in relatively practical schools like the Via Mandatum or Via Vocatio, these examinations usually involve the production and defense of theses on the art in order to demonstrate fundamental mastery of the knowledge required to use them. Often, this goes so far as requiring the demonstration of new knowledge, however small, that was not previously known in the school. Such a master is then bestowed with a Ring of Mastery. This process is rarely for pure academics - most schools will insist that Journeyman wizards take the title to heart and go out into the real world for quite some time to gain valuable real-world experience.

After Graduation

Students who remain long enough to become Journeyman Wizards in their own right have the option of leaving the seminary more or less at will, and returning in like fashion, so long as they stay in the good graces of their masters (or can find a new master on their return). Masters, similarly, have the same right, forever welcome within their alma mater.

Most Journeymen never attain mastery, or return to attain it only quite later in life, and join wizardly Chivalric Orders or Holy Orders. Those who have specialized in battlefield magic are often welcome among the Scholarly Order of the Azurejay. Self-reliant Journeymen with a thirst for adventure and a demonstrated aptitude for the philosophy needed for safe and ethical use of magic are sometimes admitted to the Royal Osmic Order.

Masters, on the other hand, rarely stay glued to any order for long. Something about the process of obtaining the title of Master Wizard almost invariably ends in one of two outcomes: returning to seminary permanently to teach the next generation, or striking out on one's own to practice solitary research, possibly with a few minor apprentices. A few masters return to the orders they spent their journeyman years with, and, every generation or so, one or two might found new seminaries of their own.