The Amethyst Academy

The Amethyst Academy is the only research institute and educational organization dedicated to arcane magic on the continent, and the foremost in the entire world. While its outward purpose is to instruct young sorcerers and wizards in magic, the Academy is much more than a secluded boarding school for witchcraft and wizardry. The Amethyst Academy operates an enterprising mage guild which controls the manufacture of magical wares, develops new magical prac tices with cutting-edge experimentation, and orchestrates an influential arcane syndicate. The exclusive syndicate provides magical counsel to the nobility of the continent. Every member of the Amethyst Academy is an arcane spellcaster. Considered aloof by the common folk, the mages are extremely influential and tremendously wealthy.

Hidden Beginnings

The Amethyst Academy began around the 5th century as an underground network to locate children born with magical abilities and protect them from persecution endorsed by the Faith of the Sacred Flame. The mages used divination magic to find children who manifested magical talents, rescued them from their fearful and paranoid communities, and educated them in hidden strongholds and far-away castles so they might wield their abilities with trained and refined control. The school gradually grew into a secret society in its own right. Sequestered in unseen universities to hide from the mage-slaying Knights of the Silver Order, the mages pooled their knowledge. They conducted research into arcane and cosmological phenomena, developing what would become the modern practice of wizardry. Many founding members of the Amethyst Academy were descended from former vassals of the sorcerer-kings. They preserved the vast magical lore once sequestered for the mighty rulers alone. The sorcerer-kings had been raw talents, who had suppressed the study of magic for fear others would rise against them, preferring to keep power solely in their bloodlines. This knowledge could now be developed and studied within the Amethyst Academy. Other founding members were the elves, who brought their ancient and hitherto unknown arts. Thus, the Amethyst Academy would be the cradle in which the arcane practice of wizardry was born.

Bound by Edict

After clandestinely operating for centuries, the Amethyst Acad emy was formally recognized with the signing of the Edicts of Lumen. The Edicts of Lumen bestow extensive protections, full autonomy, and economic advantages to the Amethyst Acade my, but also require the Academy to observe strict standards of mercantile neutrality and political non-intervention. Since the Edicts, Academy mages may work magic without fear of oppression from church or state, though the organization remains withdrawn as it increasingly turns its attention to global affairs and extraplanar happenings. While the Amethyst Acad emy outwardly upholds the Edicts of Lumen, in recent years some have claimed the mages furtively skirt its restrictions and disregard the terms which forbid dark magical practices. Others suspect the mages are weaving an arcane conspiracy to control commerce and influence politics while shielding themselves from the wrath of the Faith of the Sacred Flame.

Magical Education

When the Academy determines a child is mageborn, they dispatch their purple-robed emissaries to collect the youth around the age of six. The children become both students and wards of the Academy, whether they are royal heirs or commoners. Typ ically, the Academy leaves a dowry or grant as compensation to their family. For those of common station, an invitation to join the Amethyst Academy means being brought out of an unremarkable rural life of modest means and stepping into a world of magic, wealth, and prestige. The young sorcerers and wizards are raised within Academy dormitories, trained in magic, and inducted into the Mage Guild once they come of age. They receive a wondrous education unlike anywhere else in the world, learning art, history, mathematics, languages, sciences, and philosophy. Until the age of ten, students undergo mental and physical conditioning to help them control and focus their magical abilities. Once they have tamed the wild sorcery that is their birthright, they are schooled in wizardry. The young mages are held to high standards by exacting instructors over the course of a ten-year curriculum. Occasionally, some depart after their studies to pursue their own interests, but many more find a place within the Amethyst Academy’s hierarchy. Those who navigate the byzantine and competitive organization live a lavish lifestyle surrounded by magical wonders. While they may overlook a rustic old hedge-mage teaching their nephew a few cantrips in a remote backwater, the Amethyst Academy goes to great lengths to control magical education. The Academy zealously hoards a vast collection of spellbooks and sequesters arcane magical lore within hidden libraries restricted to only their members. Academy leaders believe others would use magic in a reckless and irresponsible manner given the chance. Though their core mission in the world — the education of young mages — helps ensure new spellcasters develop their skills, it also predisposes students to follow the Academy’s ideological principle.

Arcane Enterprise

Wealthy nobles and well-connected warlords commission the mages to craft enchanted armaments for their soldiers and arcane wards for their estates. Furthermore, the Academy provides counsel on magical matters. By custom and by treaty, the Amethyst Academy assigns a Master Wizard to serve as court mage to ruling monarchs and high-ranking vassals. The court mages assist the nobility using their magic, while also acting as informants and lobbyists for the Academy’s interests.

Covert Actions

The Amethyst Academy conducts business with utmost secrecy, especially when dealing with outsiders. They often correspond via magically conveyed messages (using sending spells) or arrange clandestine meetings (often using project image spells). A secret network of teleportation circles connect their remote strongholds, each protected by powerful arcane wards. This extensive use of magical teleportation and communication enables the Amethyst Academy to operate in a far-reaching manner unmatched by any other organization, despite the mages’ relatively small numbers.

Discoveries with Delerium

The Amethyst Academy wizards were the first to discover delerium’s vast magical potential. Their continued research aims to fully catalog delerium’s supernatural qualities and unknown dangers, and further develop methods for crafting magical weapons and arcane machines using the crystals. They procure enormous quantities to fuel their esoteric experiments and eldritch industries. Rather than risk their own members’ lives in the ruins of Drakkenheim, the Academy usually obtains delerium through various grey market sources. The mages hire mercenaries to carry out specific recovery operations, and only dispatch their own small survey teams to Drakkenheim on rare occasions. The trade of delerium is so widespread largely because the crystals are so valuable to the Academy, making delerium crystals a de facto currency.

Secluded Schools

The Amethyst Academy is not a singular place. The Academy claims to operate eight magical schools, each a fortress in its own right. A few are well-known places, and their respective entries are found in the following sections of the Gazetteer.

• Paradox Castle in the Eastern Vales
• Enigma Ziggurat in Liberio
• Starspire Observatory in the Isles of Skye
• The now-lost Inscrutable Tower of Drakkenheim in Westemär

Each has well-protected teleportation circles, but the sigil sequences are known only to Academy mages who can cast 5th level spells. The location of the other strongholds is a closely-guarded secret. Rumors claim one is buried underneath a mountain of ice near the North Pole, and another lies at the bottom of the Middle Sea in a great glass dome. One is built upon the moon. The last is apparently a moving fortress with no fixed location. Accounts vary about its nature: one story says it is a magical village built on the back of a colossal flying whale, while others say it is a mist-shrouded mansion which walks upon giant birdlike legs.

Academy Ranks

Most Academy mages are wizards. However, bards, sorcerers, and warlocks are often found within their numbers. Members wear purple robes with gold and silver detail. Many carry all manner of arcane implements: staves, wands, and spellbooks. They wear the symbol of the Academy prominently. Academy Rings. Members of the Amethyst Academy each wear a set of rings made from exotic arcane metals. The number of rings worn corresponds to the highest-level spell they can cast. Known as academy rings, these are magic items which identify the spellcaster as an Academy graduate, and often permit access to Academy strongholds. A set of five or more functions as a ring of spell storing. Each additional ring allows an additional level of spells to be stored, and some sets allow control over a shield guardian. However, each set is made for a specific individual, and only that person may attune to that set of rings.

Wards

Children taken in by the Academy who have not yet started their apprenticeship.

Apprentices

Apprentices are mages-in-training who are learning 1st- and 2nd-level arcane spells. Once they master 2nd-level spells, they begin their journeyman year where they work as an assistant to a Master Mage. After completion, the apprentices graduate and are invited to become full members of the Amethyst Academy. The typical apprenticeship takes eight to ten years.

Guild Mages

These rank-and-file Academy mages are capable of casting at least 3rd-level spells, though some new members can only cast 2nd-level spells. Most guild mages work as researchers and craftspeople for the Amethyst Academy. Few Academy members attain any rank higher than guild mage.

Master Mages

An Academy member in good standing is declared a Master Mage when they demonstrate the power to cast 5th-level spells. While some truly exceptional individuals can attain this rank at a young age, for most reaching this point represents a lifetime of achievement and dedicated study. As such, Master Mages are responsible for instructing apprentices, leading arcane research and manufacturing projects, and acting as emissaries for the Amethyst Academy.

Grandmasters

These are powerful sorcerers, warlocks, and wizards who have the ability to cast 9th-level spells. They lead the Amethyst Academy’s most important projects, and can access almost every spell and resource available to the institution. There are only a handful of Grandmasters in the entire world: beyond the eight members of the Academy Directorate, there are no more than twenty Grandmasters alive today. In the rare event of a vacancy amongst the Directorate, the Master Wizards may nominate three Grandmasters for the remaining Directorate’s consideration. Since the Directorate must unanimously choose one of the three nominees to join them, the open position can take decades to fill. Amongst the notable Grandmaster Wizards is Eldrick Rune weaver. The foremost master of abjuration magic alive, Eldrick Runeweaver (a human archmage) is one of the three current nominees to the Directorate. Alongside his foremost pupil River (a tiefling mage), he is currently leading the Academy’s expedition to the ruins of Drakkenheim, hoping his success there will secure his position amongst the Academy’s leadership.

The Directorate

The Academy Directorate consists of eight exceptionally powerful archmages. Sequestered away in secret strongholds of their own design, these highly reclusive figures rarely involve themselves in the day-to-day affairs of the Academy. Many Academy mages do not know their names, and only a few high ranking members ever meet them in person. The Directorate seldom even encounter one another physically, either. Whispers tell they gather at a stone circle on the moon via project image spells whenever they must confer as one body. At all other times, they communicate via sending, dream, and telepathic bond spells. The Directorate are:

• Adrianna Modera, Archmage of Drakkenheim (believed missing or dead following the destruction of the city, her position has remained unfilled for the past 15 years.)
• Alabaster, Archmage of Liberio
• Amaranthyst the Ultraviolet, Archmage of the Moon
• Lasaia Nightbreeze, Archmage of the Eastern Vales
• Marigold Kettleborn, Archmage of Caspia
• Penumbra, Archmage of Terene
• Xel’vohca the Ancient, Archmage of Elyria
• Zodiac Allsight, Archmage of Skye

Most Academy members believe few, if any, members of the Academy Directorate are human, or even mortal beings as several Directors have held their positions since the founding of the Amethyst Academy hundreds of years ago, including Xel’vohca, Zodiac, and Amaranthyst. However, how these directors have extended their lifespans are the subject of wild rumors and speculation amongst the mages, ranging from repeated use of the clone spell, demonic pacts, to blasphemous undead transformations. Indeed, there may be some truth to these claims. The individual members of the Directorate are described in the Continental Gazetteer. These Archmages are colleagues but also fierce rivals. There is no single leader amongst the Directorate. Instead, their byzantine rules grant each archmage full executive powers over the entire Amethyst Academy, but also the ability to veto the resolutions of any other member of the Directorate. In practice, this means the Directorate must have unanimous agreement on most major decisions. Imagine standing in a room with seven other wizards: you can cast any spell you want, but any other one could counterspell your magic, whilst a third responds with destructive magic to annihilate you both. Meanwhile, a fourth intercedes with their own abjurations and so on and so forth. The Directorate is often excruciatingly slow to reach any consensus. Meanwhile, individual members use what personal authority and resources they can to increase their personal influence and their own magical might over the other archmages. The archmages constantly plot and scheme against each other more than anyone else. Each knows that if any one of them were to wrest control of the Amethyst Academy, they would possess power akin to the sorcerer-kings of old.

Court Mages

The powerful noble houses that rule the continent are served by court mages appointed by the Amethyst Academy. Under the agreements of the Edicts of Lumen, every noble who holds a rank above a count is guaranteed the services of a permanent court mage, but any lesser nobles who can afford their salary may also procure the services of a court mage. Amongst many noble families, a mageborn child is often regard ed as a tremendous boon. Although their children cannot inherit the family rank and title, the lowliest baron to the most influential duchesses readily dispatch their mageborn children to the Ame thyst Academy for arcane schooling. Once these young mages complete their training, most take up an assignment as the court mage of their own household. In this way, the Amethyst Academy and the nobility have built close ties. The noble household gains the services of a loyal spellcaster to serve as arcane counsel and a close confidant, and the Amethyst Academy gains an intimate connection to the political machinations of the nobility. Although mageborn scions can live a life where they enjoy both the trappings of nobility and the freedom to practice their magic, many help advance the goals of their relatives as adventurers. However, this practice has come under criticism from members of the Faith of the Sacred Flame, who claim that such familial connections allow the Amethyst Academy to foster an undue influence over the nobility by exploiting the bonds of blood. They suspect that the Amethyst Academy has become quite adept at positioning itself as an elite finishing school for noble children. Suspicious Flamekeepers say that most court mages return to their families thoroughly indoctrinated, willing to use their magic to influence their parents, siblings, and cousins, pushing the Academy’s own political agenda.

Mages beyond the academy

While the purple-robed wizards would have it otherwise, several groups of mages exist outside of the Academy’s hierarchy.

Hedge-mages

This term is used to describe arcane magic-users who develop their spellcasting abilities outside Academy institutions. Nevertheless, such individuals are exceptionally rare. They are most often warlocks or sorcerers, as few outside the Amethyst Academy possess the knowledge and resources to instruct others in wizardry.

Malfeasant Mages

Malfeasant mages are spellcasters who have used magic to com mit crimes (such as murder or robbery), perform blasphemous magic (as defined by the Articles of Malediction in the Edicts of Lumen), or betrayed the Amethyst Academy (such as exposing their secrets, stealing magic items, or conspiring against the Directorate). They are outcast from the Academy and carry a death sentence in any nation bound by the Edicts of Lumen. The Academy typically only dispatches its own agents to dispose of malfeasant wizards who might be in possession of Academy property or valuable research; most are hunted down by the Silver Order or hired mercenaries. Historically, apprehending fugitive malfeasant mages is one of the few instances in which the Academy and the Silver Order cooperate.