The Wizardry Schools

Although, as elsewhere in Glorantha, everybody in Jonatela learns at least some magic, the wizards are the true specialists. The lives of brown and black wizards, in particular, are dedicated to casting and researching spells. Wizards do not follow the saints, as other Nemuzhik do, but perfect their arts by joining dedicated Schools that give them access to powerful grimoires. Such Schools are, by their nature, restricted to wizards, and every wizard over the age of sixteen has to join one; failure to do so renders them useless in their chosen profession and effectively makes them an outcast.

The Schools are often rivals of one another, especially where they embody opposed runes (such as Motion and Stasis). Although each teaches its own philosophy and provides its own list of approved spells, in the form of its grimoires, it is perfectly possible for a wizard to acquire other spells elsewhere, or even entire grimoires. Doing so is not necessarily easy, however, especially if the wizard is already attuned to an opposing rune. Even at the mundane level, learning a spell outside of the normal boundaries of the School may require some degree of skulduggery or subterfuge. The rather diffuse nature of the Syanoran Church, however, means that few spells are outright prohibited across the whole of Jonatela – although several are in specific regions of the country. Those spells that are completely banned include magic for consorting with Chaos, or that are associated with the most obviously evil and immoral acts.

The White Book as a Grimoire

Jonating wizards use the White Book as their primary source of spells, and begin studying its magic even before choosing their School. Grey, brown, and black wizards do not use any of the liturgical spells in the book, which are restricted to the clergy, but, like the Abiding Book popular elsewhere in the West, the White Book also acts as a grimoire of wizard spells, providing the basic magic for the wizard caste. Any foreign wizardry school that normally uses the Abiding Book (such as those of Conwy and Vonerin), uses the White Book in its Jonating colleges instead, and has access to the following spells:

Aid My Apprentice, Aid My Master, Ban Adept ritual, Calm [Beast], Clean Chamber, Clean Robes, Clean Self, Cure Fever, Cure Wound, Exert Will, Exorcise Spirit, Focus Attention, Hurt Foe, Identify Caste, Intimidate Commoner, Listen Intently, Memorise Text, Overcome Pagan Magic, Read Unclear Script, Recognise Demon, Recognise Pagan Daimon, Resist Cold, Resist Fire, Resist Sorcery, Track Thief, Turn Away Waters



Jonating Membership of the Schools of Wizardry
GREY WIZARDS
Conwy
 900
Grey Academy
 4,100
Urestes 1,100
WHITE WIZARDS
Humble Calligraphers
 1,000
White College
 3,000
BROWN/BLACK WIZARDS
Nerivon
 800
Niatrans
 2,600
Ouxey
 800
Parezil
 2,600
Vonerin
 700
Yarilites
 1,500
(Other)
 1,200
 

The Grey Academy

The Grey Academy originally developed as a schism within the older Urestes Academy during the eighth century. Many local wizards felt that the original school had too much detachment from everyday life, focussing its attention on natural philosophy rather than on applying its discoveries to the betterment of the Malkioni state. A number of separate schools broke away from the central organisation, developing their own, more practical philosophy, in which wizards had a central role in advising and supporting the noble caste. Over time, these schools coalesced around a single set of grimoires, and the Grey Academy was born.

Even today, the Academy is not truly a single institution, but a set of allied schools using the same grimoires and sharing a broadly similar philosophy. The common name for this collective group comes from the colour of their robes, from which the term “grey wizard” later derived, and the schools are the heart of that branch of wizardry today. Wizards of the Academy often find work as clerks, heralds, genealogists and advisors and spend relatively little time cloistered away in institutes of learning, instead working actively with nobles in cities and zamats across Jonatela.

The School remains deeply conservative, and works towards maintaining the status quo wherever possible. Most of its branches have changed little in centuries, and those few that have generally deny the accusation. Although individual members are not necessarily loyal to the nobles that they serve, they do tend to be true to the ideals of Jonating culture and society, including the status of the nobility as a whole, and to work for its preservation where they can.

Entry Requirements: Be a member of the wizard caste with an ability of Mathematics 13 or higher.

Abilities: Assess Value, Heraldry, Mathematics, Negotiate, Political Philosophy.

Virtues: Conservative, Hard-Working, Impartial.

Runes: Truth, Stasis

Grimoires:

The White Book (Law)

The Book of Understanding (Truth: Divine Blood Relationship, Enhance Intellect, Instant Calculation, Read Unclear Script, Speak and Be Understood)

The Book of Ordered Thought (Stasis: Avoid Combat, Convince Through Logic, Enhance Memory, Ignore Distractions, Preserve Text, See Clearly, Strengthen Noble’s Resolve)

Icons and Images: The Grey Academy has multiple founders, and its various branches accordingly have their own icons. A sealed scroll is used to represent the Academy as a whole, and is present in all the icons of the individual founders. Naturally, the colour grey also features heavily in the icons of the school.

Festival Day: 27th Aeror, The Day of Evaluation, traditionally the date by which all the stores for the winter should have been gathered, assessed, and properly accounted for.

Other Side: There is no single node for the Academy present on the Founders’ Plane, although the various founders do have their own nodes. However, the grimoires of the School do have nodes shared between all of the Academy’s branches, and acting as their best representation of unity on the Other Side.

Advantages and Disadvantages: The positions within which grey wizards generally find themselves often give them considerable political authority and leverage. For the same reason, their close association with the nobility makes them unpopular with the masses, and their neutral stance makes it hard for some individual boyars to trust them.


The White College

The Great Conclave of 997 established the White College as the central body for the education of the wizard clergy. However, it failed to appoint a single leader for the College, because the position would have been potentially so powerful that nobody could agree on who should hold it. By default, the archbishops and autcephalous bishops retain the leadership of their local branch of the White College themselves, and have substantial influence over the theology taught in its seminaries. Even so, the White College is, far more than the Grey Academy, spoken of as if it were a single institution. Indeed, the teaching of magic within the College is remarkably uniform, being quite clearly mandated in the White Book.

Members of the White College are both liturgists and regular wizards, and they have access to all the blessings and curses of the White Book, in addition to the spells in their own grimoire, The Syanoran Glosses. All decans, priors, bishops, and archbishops are members of the College, as are most other white wizards. Within the seminaries, the positions of prior and archimandrite are usually held by the same individual, and the lack of a discrete hierarchy makes it difficult to distinguish between the College and the Church itself.

Entry Requirements: Must be a member of the wizard caste with an ability of Theology 13 or higher.

Abilities: Church Politics, Deliver Sermon, Dignity of the Church, Theology.

Virtues: Pious, Self-righteous.

Rune: Law

Scripture: The White Book

Grimoires:

The White Book (Law)

The Syanoran Glosses (Law: Beat Away Commoners, Burn Away Erroneous Text, Cleansing Flame, Create Mitre of Authority ritual, Defend Chapel ritual, Defend Community ritual, Strengthen Conviction, Strike Sinner, Ward Away Weapons)

Icons and Images: The only icon of the White College is the burning essence bear of the Great Conclave, destroying false scripture on the first Day of Clarity.

Festival Day: 21st Vernus, the Day of Clarity, anniversary of the founding of the Church and the compilation of the White Book.

Other Side: The Node of Clarity on the Founders’ Plane is a cavernous domed cathedral lit by perpetual sunlight from windows far above and filled with the echoing musical chants of invisible angels.

Advantages and Disadvantages: Only through the White College can a wizard attain the highest levels of authority within the Church, with all the benefits and political rivals that that implies. The need to conduct regular religious rituals creates a greater demand on the time of white wizards than similar duties among other members of the caste, while also giving the wizard a closer connection to a general congregation, and access to more potent magic through the Chain of Veneration.


The Niatran School of Purity

Niatra was an early missionary in Old Syanor, active at the end of the seventh century and into the early eighth, following the traditions of Saint Bertorl. A skilled wizard and healer, she nonetheless also performed many miraculous deeds that showed her connection to the divine. Niatra emphasised the ritual purity of the Nemuzhik, and especially of the wizard caste, and it was she that introduced the now universal rule on regular bathing for wizards. Her miracles focussed on healing the sick, and, in particular, on removing sources of contagion, such as impure water or chaos taints.

Niatra’s followers established a wizardry school to preserve her grimoires, but, for many centuries, she was also venerated as a saint. Her determination that the earthy nature of commoners, covered as they were in soil, soot, and the sweat of their labours, renders them impure later became a central tenet of the Syanoran Church. However, that Church also condemned the practice of venerating Niatra as a saint, although this had already ceased to be the mainstream view some years before, insisting that saints were for warriors and nobles alone.

In modern times, Niatrans mostly serve as Purifiers, wizard caste healers who preserve the well-being of the Nemuzhik. Purifiers have an important role in many magical and religious ceremonies, removing any sources of contamination and keeping corruption at bay.


Entry Requirements: Must be a member of the wizard caste with an ability of Recognise Disease 13 or higher.

Abilities: Follow Regimen, Recognise Disease, Treat Disease, Treat Poison, Washing.

Virtues: Abstemious, Conscientious.

Runes: Harmony, Water

Grimoires:

The White Book (Law)

The Tome of Purgation (Harmony: Banish Unclean Thoughts, Banish Odour, Calm Tempers, Clean Wound, Heal Sickness, Identify Impurity, Neutralise Poison, Ward Away Commoner, Ward Away Demon, Ward Away Unclean Spirit)

Divine Purity (Water: Avoid Contamination, Banish Dirt, Clean Away Chaos ritual, Drown Vermin, Fragrant Bath, Pure Light, Purify Medicine, Purify Water, Suspend Menstruation, Wash Away Sin ritual)

Icons and Images: Icons of Niatra show a flawless middle-aged woman, often holding a bowl of pure water, and bathed in white light. A few icons instead show her praying in a pool of water, with only her hands, head, and neck visible.

Festival Day: 20th Turbidor, the anniversary of Niatra’s death and bodily assumption into Solace.

Other Side: The Node of Purity on the Founders’ Plane takes the form of a lake of crystal clear water suspended in a vast sphere of indestructible glass beyond which swirl eternal white mists. Sometimes floating islands or platforms appear within the lake, holding items of ritual or magical significance. Everything within the node is perfectly clean and incorruptible.

Advantages and Disadvantages: Niatrans are much in demand, but their School mandates a strict rule to maintain their ritual purity. In addition to regular ablutions and careful maintenance of personal cleanliness, Niatran wizards must avoid taking alcohol and over-eating, and abstain from sex on certain days of the week (in addition to which, of course, extramarital sex is completely forbidden). Because commoners are impure, Niatrans are forbidden from using their healing magic on them, lest they become corrupted, Note that this latter rule applies only to healing spells and the Wash Away Sin ritual; the use of other cleaning magic on commoners is not only permitted, but is often desirable if one has to deal with them at all.


The Yarilite School

Yarilia was a pious wizard who lived in Syanor during the late seventh century. Because of their conflicts with the storm-worshipping pagans, most wizards of the time concentrated on studying the magic of light and fire, exemplified by such important religious leaders as Talor and Gerlant. Storm magic, in particular, was associated with the tempestuous and immoral ways of the barbarians, not something fit for true Malkioni. Yarilia, however, believed that God had created all parts of the world for His own purposes, and that it was not storm magic itself that was tainted, but merely the pagan practices that surrounded it.

Ostracised and mistrusted by her fellows, Yarilia travelled to the wild lands of the Visurka to conduct her studies alone. In time, she developed a small following, and integrated the study of the element of Air fully into Malkioni teachings. This became the nucleus of the first wizardry school in the region, and later expanded to become a major Syanoran institution. The Yarilites focus on Air magic, and in particular on harnessing the power of winter, was useful both for survival in the harsh Fronelan climate, and for combat against rivals. For some, it even provided a bridge between paganism and the Malkioni faith.

Entry Requirements: Must be a member of the wizard caste.

Abilities: Predict Weather, Seek Shelter.

Virtues: Stern, Temperate.

Runes: Air, Cold, Protection

Grimoires:

The White Book (Law)

The Book of Ice (Cold: Estimate Temperature, Freeze Water, Freezing Breath, Harden Hearts, Icicle Sword, Shape Ice, Skate on Ice, Stop Ice Melting, Storm of Ice Shards)

Mastering the True Storm (Air: Buffet Down Flyer, Chill to the Bone, Defeat Storm Daimones, Exorcise Storm Spirits, Fearful Wind, Soaking Sleet, Stop the Wind, Summon Wind Essence)

Winter Wards (Protection: Blanket with Snow, Command Winter Essence, Inner Warmth, Melt Ice, Reinforce Shelter, Tunnel through Snow)

Icons and Images: Yarilia is shown dressed in long, hooded robes, bearing a sharp dagger of ice in one hand, and surrounded by a whirling blizzard of snow.

Festival Day: 14th of Brumastide is the Day of Winter’s Chill, when the powers of ice and storm are at their strongest. On this day, Yarilite wizards reinforce their magic by binding essences of wind and cold to their will.

Other Side: The Ice Forest is a great maze of icicles and frozen ponds standing amidst a snowy wasteland bounded on all sides by a towering, unscalable glacier. The sky above is filled with churning clouds and howling winds.


Foreign Schools

School of Conwy

As in most other parts of the West, the School of Conwy is treated with suspicion in Jonatela. The role of the School is to constantly question assumptions, something that is rarely popular among the ruling nobility. Nonetheless, the fractious nature of Jonating politics makes it difficult to mount any effective opposition to the existence of the School, so long as it does not make itself too troublesome. Considered to be grey wizards by the Church, adepts of Conwy tend to remain in their own schools, but a number do travel out across the country in search of new experiences and knowledge.

In Jonatela, Conwy is not regarded as a saint, as he is elsewhere, but merely as a visionary wizard.

The Humble Calligraphers

The Humble Calligraphers retain their neutrality in Jonatela, as they do elsewhere in the West. They exist only to assist other wizards, although their scriptoria are found associated with city cathedrals as much as in isolated parts of the country. Their adepts are considered white wizards (and therefore wear white robes, not black), because of their role in copying and maintaining scriptures as well as grimoires, although they have no access to liturgical magic as their counterparts in the White College do. The School has its own internal hierarchy, and does not include any decans. As in other Schools, the priors of the Humble Calligraphers are supplied by the White College.

Nerivon’s School

The Nerivoni are a peculiar branch of wizardry, not directly associated with any Church, and having their origins in Wenelia, far to the south of Jonatela. They are relatively recent arrivals in Jonatela, only having established academies in the fifteenth century, but the turmoil of the Ban only increased their influence and popularity. As a result, they have grown to become almost as large as the more established schools, their philosophy of impermanence having an appeal to a certain portion of the kingdom’s fractious wizards. Unlike the other major Schools of the region, the Nerivoni do not use the Abiding Book as a grimoire, although, in practice, many of their adepts will have learned spells from the books while still undergoing their basic wizardry education. They also tend to avoid the Chromatic Schism, changing between black and brown robes on a whim, which makes them unpopular in some quarters.

School of Ouxey

As with Conwy, the Jonatings do not consider Ouxey to be a saint, but merely as a great wizard. His school concentrates on magic of vigilance and watchfulness, often considered useful by rival Jonating factions. Some Jonating Ouxeyites remain isolated in their own religious communities, but most find service somewhere in the country, only returning to their college to further their studies from time to time. The School has rival leaders in Old Syanor and Darpador, each in charge of colleges kept separate during the Ban.

The Parezil School

The Parezil School is an offshoot of the School of Bardan’s Book, an order of battle mages with companies throughout the West. However, it has little to do with its sister schools elsewhere, even though it uses the same grimoires and magic. Indeed, it derides Bardan himself as a sinner whose discovery of the grimoires was a matter of good fortune, not of divine guidance. Instead, the School proclaims its own founder, a twelfth century wizard, as the man who saved the grimoires from misguided foreigners, and instituted his own rule for future battle mages to follow. Because of their usefulness to the nobility, the School remains one of the largest among the brown and black wizards, with several companies across Jonatela.

The Urestes Academy

Initially all but banished from the region by the rise of the schismatic Grey Academy, the wizards of Urestes returned in the late Imperial Age, and re-established the original principles of their School. Since them, the School has grown, with numerous new academies founded across Jonatela. The Church considers adepts of Urestes to be grey wizards, although they often remain in their own institutions, somewhat isolated from other Nemuzhik, where they continue their researches into the nature of physical reality. A few have taken up employment with nobles, however, especially where the local Grey Academy has fallen out of favour with the local boyar for some reason.

The Vonerin School

The undead are a great evil in Jonatela, just as they are elsewhere, and the unusual Vonerin School is dedicated to fighting them. Originating in the lands just to the north, it has long been present in Jonatela, where its greatest concentration of academies is in Darpador, and it is also relatively popular in Timms. The School’s specialist nature keeps it small, but the superstitious nature of the Jonatings ensures its continued existence and gainful employment.

Minor Schools

In addition to the relatively large schools of wizardry mentioned above, Jonatela is home to about fifty smaller schools. Although a few consist of a small number of separate institutions bound together by a common philosophy and set of grimoires, most are highly local in nature, with just a single college for training and study. As is typical in Jonatela, these lesser schools have often conflicting ideals and codes of behaviour, and between them they explore almost every possible aspect of wizardly magic.

All are at least nominally in agreement with Syanoran doctrine and associated with the Church, but, in some cases, this means little more than a general lip service. Indeed, a few are even outright heretical, secretly teaching their students that might horrify wider society, or working as cover for sinister cults. The Syanoran Church’s lack of centralisation makes such practices much easier than in many other Malkioni lands, other such activity is never safe from the possibility of discovery and persecution.

The various minor schools of the land typically only have two or three dozen members, including students, and some are much smaller.

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This page was last updated 3rd September 2011 by Jamie Revell