✎ academia ✐

introduction

The MagiCourt (ᚨᛏᚱᛁᚢᛗ᛫ᛗᚨᚷᛁᚲᛇ, Atrium Magicae) is recognized as the most influential alliance of Magicals in the modern world for its age, history, and culture developed entirely separate from Magicians' societies of its ilk. Houses Song, Wilde, Delgado and Cade are some of the oldest and by far most reputable lines of Auric blood to emerge in the Age of Colors. Roughly a quarter of the world's magic-gifted population can trace their lineage back to these Houses. The political prestige that comes with bearing these names is priceless in circles both Aware and Unaware—to be borne of the MagiCourt means you are powerful, and that your so-called magical Talent likely moves stuff of the fundamental. Like elements of nature, or minds, or life itself.

    It comes as no surprise, then, that in the mid 12th century, the MagiCourt established an educational institution known simply as The Academy (L' Académie, in founders' French, 学院 in Mandarin, アカデミー in Japanese, La Academia in Spanish, and Mahikademya in Tagalog), where children of the four MagiCourt families could be taught the best use of their blood-borne advantages. In the late 17th century, it opened its doors to magical children anywhere, so long as one was Registered and bore lengthy letters of recommendation from a Sponsor or two of Court affiliation.

Now known everywhere as the MagiCourt School (ᚨᚲᚨᛞᛖᛗᛁᚨ᛫ᚨᛏᚱᛁᚢᛗ᛫ᛗᚨᚷᛁᚲᛇ, Academia Atrium Magicae), it is by far the most prestigious of all educational institutions for magic. With an unimpeachable track record for excellence, students here are exposed to pressures both scholar and social, learning to apply their gifts in the Magicals' world, and to greater lengths in Unaware societies. The latter here is notable—not many magic schools teach nonmagical subjects. The MagiCourt School, however, adheres to a holistic approach, with a curriculum that balances Unaware subjects and their magic counterparts.

    Take, for example, a middle schooler's typical schedule of Mathematics on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with Mathemagics on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. High schoolers and undergraduate students are encouraged to develop their own schedules to suit and hone their specific Talents and interests.

    The walls and sports teams are painted with stripes of blue and gold. Students are grouped into one of the four MagiCourt Houses by colored badges worn on their uniforms—red for Songs, blue for Delgados, purple for Wildes, and (though now a rarity) green for Cades. If a student is unrelated by blood to any of these houses, they wear the colors of their Sponsors. Such a culture encourages the formation of connections that go beyond academic walls.

Politics here are crucial—this is where alliances are fostered. Lifelong bonds are built and/or broken as generations of powerful children are taught exactly how to use, misuse, and arguably abuse their genetic privileges. The MagiCourt School, much like the institution of its namesake, does not prize Unaware morals. Characters built between its ancient walls are strengthened and, thereafter, empowered by experiences unknown to the everyday man. Teach a Magical the morals of men, and they will act like men, with softened hearts and easily-swayed spirits. To the Wilde-governed MagiCourt, power is and has always been the only valuable currency.

What, then, makes an exemplary MagiCourt student, apart from a fine-pressed uniform and a dragon for a mascot? There is darkness brooding between these pale, marble walls despite the flashes of color that grace the crystalline light fixtures day by day—these are, after all, bits of youthful soul, lost to Spells and Charms of convenience.

Only strength of will constitutes a graduate in a place where cunning is everything and blood is stronger than any and all iterations of love. MagiCourt students are, for all their posturing, cursed to be exactly like their forebears—proud, merciless, selfish, and deeply, truly lonely.

How can anyone survive?