Arcanum Society

Formed during the war between dracomages and formerly Empties, the Arcanum Society believed everyone born with magic deserved to keep their connection to it, regardless of being chosen by dragons or not. They devoted their research to studying Essence, learning how to control and manipulate it safely, and attempted many, many experiments on how to reverse the Madness inflicted on the majority of those who chose contact with it. The AS controlled the tear, as it was originally their only means to gain Essence powers, but once they were betrayed and driven out during the Civil war between them and the Bloodlings, they repaired the tear and fled north. The Bloodlings did not care, being far too corrupted by this point and devolving into barbaric, brutal behavior to those around them not seemingly marked mentally. They had wild, impulsive control of Essence.

The AS began developing training for those interested in become Aethermagi, letting the researchers trial and error pave the way to the Grand Magister's ability to open a connection to the Inbetween and grant them the use of Essence in a safe form.

Over time, their research of the arcane lessened as they knew more than not, which freed up time and resources to study the rest of the cosmos, which is where they began seeing Stasis. It had been a phenomenon documented over decades that wasn't able to be properly scrutinized until mastery of the arcane was achieved, but once the connection to Essence was achieved, mages clearly saw the geometric, crystalline intricacies glimmering in the world as well. Just glimpses, enough to make someone scratch their head, wondering if they really saw something or not. This confirmation through research saw rise to the Stasis monks/warriors (name TBD; more heavily frontline tank/melee support). When one chose to devote their affinity's to Stasis, they saw their mastery and connection over Essence wither away very quickly and had to choose between one or the other. Attempting to keep both eventually led to the same Madness that raw essence gave, as the AS unfortunately learned.