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The Osrona Imperial Mage's Academy and University
Present Day
The main complex of the Academy, as it's known colloquially, has been in place on an elevated hill southeast of the Imperial City for roughly eight hundred years. Despite its florid and at times contentious history, the Academy has been a seat of learning since its inception and countless numbers of Essharan students have passed through its doors. Most find it a welcome, if temporary, respite from busy City life.
Officially, the Academy serves all members of Essharan citizenry, and even reluctantly has allowed foreign students in the past, usually as favors to the local nobility. In practice, however, tuition can be fairly expensive for the average commoner, who might hope at best to send one of their children for courses rather than a full curriculum.
Specific courses offered at the Academy have differed greatly over the centuries-- generally, restricted to whatever instructors are available. Wages and equipment are paid for with a mix of patronage and tuition; though that has not always been the case during various points in the Academy's history.
Though the Academy maintains a certain degree of freedom from interference by the city, both due to distance and a sense of independence, it is still firmly reliant on royal patronage and thus royal decree. A long-standing program offering free courses to any City Watch and First Light members has encouraged good cooperation and adherence to city law.
The History
Much of the Academy's ancient history is shrouded in mystery (stemming largely from an intense fire that ravaged the entire complex in 1066, destroying much of the archives).
The initial complex that forms the heart of the Academy was born in a much darker time than its current form would suggest. It began as a headquarters for anti-witch crusaders among the zealous city and rural folk, with the True Faith constructing much of the initial works and the earliest runes in the area.
For the first two centuries of its existence it was more of a border fort and prison, holding a great many prisoners from the Witch Trials. Some say it was one of these prisoners - an actual witch among the many innocent prisoners - that ended up burning much of it down, though the structure itself would remain, abandoned, for another fifty years.
Regardless of the brutality of the Witch Trials, something positive still came from it-- a great deal of magical knowledge was gained in the process. The question was, of course, what to do with it; where to store it. The noble families decided on the ruins of the True Faith complex, with its still-existing wards, to be the center of a new place of learning. With the threat of the Witches passed, the realm turned to the study and protection of magic so that such a thing might not happen again. The caretakers of this knowledge would be the faculty of the Imperial Academy.
The Instructors
A teacher is a most prized thing-- and quite well paid, generally. The Academy has frequently been accused of acquiring somewhat eccentric instructors for their courses, encouraging a wide field of knowledge. However, the paths to knowledge have some dangerous routes, and some schools of magic - such as illegal occultism - are entirely forbidden.
Instructors often take contracts to teach to whoever is interested in learning their field, for a specified time and at a specified salary, and generally accept the offer of living at the spacious Academy complex itself. Generally the courses are somewhat unstructured, with the most popular instructors holding large lessons, while others give more personal (and more expensive) one-on-one courses.
The Grandmasters
There have been eight Grandmasters of the Academy in the past (at various times called "headmasters"); female Grandmasters often choose the title of Grandmistress.
1066-1074: Artino Angelos (Astyan) - The first of the Grandmasters, Angelos was known for much of the early construction of the Academy, and its initial rules on magic and responsible care of dangerous knowledge. His powerful Earth magic reshaped much of the surrounding landscape.
1074-1097: Siri Galanis (Essharan) - The first Grandmistress. Galanis, according to the archives, had a particularly strong connection to the Lifestream and used it to channel much of the local mana flow to create an "intersection" of power that converge on the Academy grounds.
1097-1099: Mina Hatchett (Unknown) - Grandmistress Hatchett's name was stricken from most of the archives after it was discovered she was in fact an Abyssal One demon who had possessed the actual Mina Hatchett during study of a recovered occultic artifact. Generally these 2 years are simply skipped over as if they did not exist, and any records at all about the time are unusually sparse.
1100-1246: Remi Sarris (Essharan) - Sometimes teased for his seemingly supernatural lifespan, Grandmaster Sarris led the Academy to a golden age of stability and prosperity. Much of the current-day traditions began in this time period, such as royal patronage (Sarris was a leading noble citizen at the time). Much speculation was given on his extreme age - he became Grandmaster at age 64, or so he claimed, meaning that in 1246, when he mysteriously disappeared while getting his morning coffee, he was roughly 210 years old.
1247-1330: Jodi Sarris (Essharan-Magnolian) - The grand-daughter of the great Remi, Jodi Sarris had a good portion of her grandfather's power, and a great deal of exuberant creativity. She was responsible for much of the Academy ground's current state, including its transportation system. Thanks to her whimsical nature she created a great many strange chambers and secrets, and thanks to her skill many of which may never be found.
1330-1410: Gregor Volgran (Unknown) - Volgran was Grandmaster for exactly ninety-nine years, during which time he greatly improved the Academy's collection of artifacts, tomes, and relics thanks to an immense obsession with archaeology. Grandmaster Volgran is known as one of the first to make contact with Agartha via Wayfinding magic, leading to full contact and trade with the help of the merchants and artificer's guilds.
1411-1522: None - During this time period, the Grandmaster position was abolished in favor of a Council of instructors to make decisions and share equal responsibilities, as nobody was chosen to become Grandmaster after Volgran and competition was fierce, leading to several duels and deaths. The Council worked well for over a century, until a chain of six honor duels among Council members led to the reversion of the Grandmaster title (to the survivor).
1523-1589: Jon Mort (Valmasian) - The first and only foreign Grandmaster (besides the 'unknowns'), Jon returned the Academy to peace and stability and formalized the Instructor positions and their salaries. His calm and placid nature helped a great deal in repairing strained relations between the Imperial City and the Academy.
cough cough optional
1590-present: Todesia Crompet (Unknown) - The current Grandmistress is an unfortunately-named woman named Todesia, who is known to be a fearsome mix of kindly old grandmother and sabre-toothed boar. After Jon Mort disappeared during a Wayfinding course, Todesia sort of appeared and took over and nobody told her to stop. She's shown a surprising and at times ruthless efficiency in her watch over the Academy, but only time will tell if it will remain as stable as during previous times.
