NationStates Jolt Archive

((Note this is more a description than a Roleplay, although you are welcome to say anything you wish.))

So what exactly is a Magical University, that is difficult to say it might be easier to explain first what it is not. This is not a place where Apprentices are trained, it's Students typically have been Mages for the past Decade or two, they have established extensive spellbooks of their own, have experiance in the casting of the Arcane.

The Students here do not clean the Professors shelves, or wipe his floor clean in the hope of being taught a cantrip for making a stain disappear or making a rude noise. This is a place of serious study.

The Students are chosen under a very strict guideline, for a start they must have each have crafted their own spells to have shown they can make an original spell. That alone is beyond many otherwise gifted Mages, but it is the ability to show this spark of originality that is so sought after by the Instructors here.

When they are chosen as worthy of being in the University it is not by application either, rather the Universitys staff themselves approach a potential candiaite for the Tower of Light, few turn the honour down but some have been known too, for their is no true graduation from it's halls. Entrance into the Tower requires the most serious of Oaths upon the Seldarine and their souls, for the knowledge they shall recieve within, is a secret they cannot share with others, and a duty they must abide by. Every Student and Teacher at the tower is bound to the will of the Council of Houses and King Githras, they serve the kingdom before themselves, it is the highest of honours and the most stringent of callings.

So Why do they enter this place, it is for what they shall be taught within, the secret of High Magic, a form of Magic purer than other forms of the weave, and more powerful. For many mages to be chosen to wield this is the greatest gift that be given, the price therefore is a small one to pay.

(((More Later. Again this is motly to set things out in my own head to base future RP's on. Hope I didn't bore too many people.))

OOC: this is one of the best series of posts and threads I've seen...can't wait for more...
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How does one define High Magick? How does one even distinguish between magicks? Good and evil are not clear in life, so why should they be clear in magick? The fire of a flame alchemist can be used to warm a home, or to burn down a city. Does that not in itself remove any ability for one to judge magick? A summoner may become an aspect of Volt and provide the energy to run a hospital, just as easily as a skilled mage can channel the power of Volt during wartime. In the end, the only distinction for magick is its use and application, and if a magick cannot be applied, then of what worth is its study?
J. W. Leigh,
Private Journals

J. W. Leigh is considered to be the founder of modern Weyrean thaumaturgical science. Ultimately, however, Leigh was also a visionary, who saw magick as a tool rather than an art, and who despised any who refused to apply the knowledge they gained through study or experimentation. This must always be kept in mind when studying Leigh's works.
N. H. Neverille
Memorandum to students of The Tower at Wye

((Wish I could claim total credit but many of the concepts are drawn from the fluff source 'Elves of Evermeet', and then adapted for my my own nation, and given my spin. but I thank you for the compliment. and your contribution.))

To those not of the Isles of Giltheran and outside of the Tree of Souls spreading influance, when the Elves of these lands whisper of High Magic many misunderstand. This is understandable, for the uninitiated Elf speaks of it as 'purer' and the practioners do not reveal the truth. It is purer in that it is closer to the nature of the magic, not in it's morality.

As all magic it is ultimatly a neutral force, bound to the will and intentions of it's caster and shaper. Yet the Tower places strict rules upon what can be done with this Power, and these limitations have been extended across the board, the oldest and most powerful spells are tied up in strict conditions so that they can only be released in dire emergencys. Of those spells not so chained one example in the past has been seen by outsiders. This example perhaps shows of what lies at the heart of High Magic.

Soon after the 're-emergence' of Ermor upon the world Wraiths intruded upon the Council and the King, the sue of High Magic by the Mages therein changed one of the Wraiths returning to it both it's body and it's life, it was as it was before becoming undead.

Such feats are impossible under the normal constraints of Arcane Magic as practised by the Elves of Giltheran but are similar to that of the Divine Magics of Clerics, it would appear that in part High Magic is a merging of Arcane and Divine perhaps this explains the purer in that it is the two halfs of Magic as they are before they split.