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[mightymushroom]

Yeah, I'll wait on a list.

[Nirur Torir]

As a thaumaturgy institute, just how much practical magic can I have?
I'm thinking about starting with three houses:

-Sages try to learn and catalogue as many spells as possible, as well as magical lore and legends. They might try to piece together and re-create forgotten spells.
--Magic is dying. We need to learn and record as much of it as possible, or we'll be stuck trying to re-invent centuries of spellcraft.
--They're adventurer/librarians, going out to learn new magic and bring it back home.
--While the adventurers should have a few spells they're skilled with, they're not focused on how to use most of their spells better. I consider it a success if they take 20 minutes to cast a small fireball. And if they learn 5 different ways to cast a fireball spell, we can compare them and use this knowledge.
--I do have to be careful with dark magic or particularly powerful spells so I don't draw any ire. I do hope to one day get special permission to have basic dark magic taught to select individuals, as even having dissected a low powered Touch of Decay spell should give me a leg up on defeating an evil Zone of Decay or whatever it is I'll be assigned to clean up.

-Scholars are the researchers, studying the underpinnings of magic in the tower.
--They're why I'm a thaumaturgy institute, and should be the largest house.

-Sanctifiers are the main group doing the tower's job, cleaning up the Inquisition's magical crises.
--They're not battlemages. It would be nice to have some healing magic, and the ability to help anyone irradiated by magic, but I don't want them to be a permanent attachment to Inquisitional units.
--It's their job to plan for disasters, and to follow what the Scholars are doing so they can prevent, mitigate, or repair the damage done.
--I don't know what "dealing with the aftereffects of magical crises" entails. If I'm dealing with something like thaumaturgicly irradiated lands that bring the dead back as zombies, then Sanctifiers might be able to figure out how to create and maintain good effects like keeping a town and its crops healthy.

Eventually I'd like to add a house for applying what the Scholars learn, creating and refining spells.

I'll likely end up needing to train battlemages for defending myself. I can probably outsource that to an extent, but I need some loyal battlemages if I have a large spell library.

[Dustan Hache]

Nirur Torir, given your stated plans thus far, i kinda wish you started in Unst. it would have been possible to share research better due to close proximity, and it would give me the ability to co-operate with your school.

[Nirur Torir]

Ghazkull: How much work has been done on my location, if I wanted to change my mind and start in Unst?

Nirur Torir, given your stated plans thus far, i kinda wish you started in Unst. it would have been possible to share research better due to close proximity, and it would give me the ability to co-operate with your school.

I'm tempted. Wenst doesn't provide a known advantage, given I could cooperate with either of you, but does have dark magic banned.

[Ghazkull]

Wenst contrary to Unst is liberal meaning you wont get much inquisition or angry peasants on your doorsteps and sometimes even active crown support. Its basically "do not fuck up and make us come over there" mentality in Wenst versus "I AM WATCHING YOU WITCH!" mentality in Unst.

anyway yes you can still switch i wasnt done with your part of the second creation part yet...(turns out there is tons of stuff and writing those professor dossiers takes surprisingly long...)

[Nirur Torir]

I think I'll stay with Wenst, sorry Dustan. It'll be easier to get away with a few narrowly averted catastrophes.

[Ghazkull]

Gearson Tower (Naturegirl1999)

The Great Forest of Wenst. Its a rather homey location...except that its inhabitants are relatively poor loggers, coalers, hunters and poachers.
You lean on your connections and put out a call for Professors of rare fields of study...and you find them indeed:

Spoiler:  Asubis Goodloon (click to show/hide)

Field of Study: White Necromancy
Effectiveness: Awful
Traits: digressive, genius, feminist

Asubis Goodloon is probably the foremost magician for a few hundred miles in the field of White Necromancy. White Necromancy is largely characterized through the summoning of willing spirits and souls (which is still illegal by the way) and far more importantly its use in medicine. White Necromancy spells allow the removal of dead tissue, cleaning of wounds and other things beyond that. In conjunction with Life Magic it allows the use of magic on rotting or decaying wounds, removal of parasites and similiar finnicky operations where the use of Life Magic would only make the problem worse. As such it is under strict surveillance within the Kingdom of Wenst but still allowed. Asubis herself is a terrible teacher, due to her digressive nature. Personally she thinks that there are too few female wizards of renown and thus prefers to take on female apprentices.

Spoiler:  Asavius (click to show/hide)

Field of Study: Sympathetic Magic
Effectiveness: Superior
traits: sociopath

Asavius practices a barely known form of magic. Sympathetic Magic deals with the linking of objects or sentients and hwo they can be affected by each other. Voodoo dolls are one child of Sympathetic Magic. He himself is a great teacher but also thoroughly coldblooded. He has no qualms about using apprentices for experiments, which might even be deadly...which is probably why he is here...

Spoiler:  Ibin Al-Lodril (click to show/hide)

Field of Study: Crystal singing
Effectiveness: Excellent
traits: chauvinist, professional, patient, skirt-chaser, diligent, pervert

Ibin Al-Lodril is trained in the ancient elven art of crystal-singing. Mostly used to craft the infamous (and extremely illegal) soul crystals which elven necromancers and blood sorcerers use, this magic is not only restricted but also rare. Ibin is thoroughly convinced that men should be the only ones studying magic, has a penchant to go skirt-chasing amongst the staff and doesn't even stop at his female apprentices. He is also an excellent teacher, knows his field, knows how to follow orders and very patient when teaching, allowing even the dumbest apprentices to gain some insights into his field of magic.

With these applications out of the way there is a whole lot of other things to consider.
While you have started out with some savings those will be eaten up by the building of the tower, the permits and provisions, you should start considering how you manage to aquire funds.

Currently you still have enough gold left to invest in servant quarters (with servants), a small library or quarters for a Proctor.
Proctors serve as guard mages, bouncers and the equivalent of magical janitors trying to clean up any fuck-ups created by unruly students or research mishaps.

That being said you should start to consider the general character of your tower. Do you aquire servants for you students? Are they expected to take up menial labour to save money? Are there entrance fees for students or rent to be paid by your professors?
Do you want to open a line of credit or try and aquire a patron?
Are there any school traditions and rules you want to implement right from the get go? (competitions, nobility or sorcerer families only, pet regulations etc.)
And then there is room and board to consider. Free or paid for by the students? And the quality of food is of course also of interest.

((The above part here is for you to add some freeform things you want to do, so you can personalize your school and how you pay for it))

Even as you contemplate this the first five applications are fluttering into your lap. As you are aware you have room and board for five apprentices for now.

Spoiler:  Applicants (click to show/hide)

Hans
Intelligence: Average
Wealth: Average
Traits: ambitious

Katrina
Intelligence: Average
Wealth: Wealthy
Traits: wise

Hartwig
Intelligence: Average
Wealth: Well-Off
traits: lazy

Pondal
Intelligence: Slow
Wealth: poor
traits:

Ulfang
Intelligence: smart
Wealth: poor

(posts for the other players will follow)

[Naturegirl1999]

Hire Asavius
Accept all 5 applicants
Invest in a small library

Payments&Rules
Because of the lack of servants, the students will do menial work in the tower, as will I. The professors will pay rent and there is a small entrance fee for students
I will try and aquire a patron
Room and board is free  And the quality of food is average for now. Improvements will come in time

[Dustan Hache]

*quietly wishes for one of the professors I get to have a field of study like asubis*

[Ghazkull]

The Unnamed Tower ((Dustan Hache))

It shows almost suicidal bravery to set up something like a necromancer tower in the homelands of the Inquisition. It shows a lack of judgement to set one up in the Forests of Unst. The Convent of her Divine Retribution and its battle nuns are feared throughout the land. You. do. not. care.

What you care about is necromancy and as you lean on your connections you find out that most necromancers care about their life. After all, thats why most of them do it in the first place, to reach the heights of immortality. In any case you only get a single application by someone foolhardy enough to follow you to the Forests of Unst:

Spoiler:  Eghis Cleft (click to show/hide)

Field of Study: Black Necromancy
Effectiveness: Excellent
Traits: black widow, disciplinarian

Black Necromancy. The reanimation of corpses with lesser demons and the damned souls gained through bargain with demons from beyond the Pale. Black Necromancy is forbidden almost everywhere, since it cleaves very, very close to actual demonology. Beyond its reanimation spells, Black Necromancy also contains harmful spells used for combat aswell as several crossover disciplines from Demonology.
Eghis Cleft is a sorceress of some renown amongst necromancers. Keeping herself young with the occasional demonic pact, she still looks like in her late twenties while possessing the knowledge only someone far beyond that age would possess. She is an excellent teacher, albeit with an unnatural predilection for male students, which she loves to discipline in creative and cruel ways. Those that do not perform afterwards might find themselves as her bargaining chip for her next youth cure.

You do not have much choice really. Its either her or no one. Then again you can always just abandon the tower here, aquire some wealthy patron and try somewhere else.
The problem is that there are no unguarded cemetaries in the vicinity and to aquire corpses you would need to go to great length and expense.
As such you come to the following conclusion in regards to your remaining money:
Either you build quarters for Hunters, who would bring in dead animals, at little suspicion, You build on top of ancient burial sites...which brings a whole slew of other problems, or you build some quarters and hire mercenaries. An expensive option which would allow you to send them out to simply waylay lone wanderers or go grave-robbing.

That being said you should start to consider the general character of your tower. Do you aquire servants for you students? Are they expected to take up menial labour to save money? Are there entrance fees for students or rent to be paid by your professors?
Do you want to open a line of credit or try and aquire a patron?
Are there any school traditions and rules you want to implement right from the get go? (competitions, nobility or sorcerer families only, pet regulations etc.)
And then there is room and board to consider. Free or paid for by the students? And the quality of food is of course also of interest.

As you consider this you realize that you still lack apprentices. Somebody helpfully offers that you can either take 5 cultists or open a line of credit and buy slaves to your specifications.

[Dustan Hache]

Zavas expected this, but he had plans to work with the convent under the cover of other types of magic. After all, not all mages practice the dark arts, and his particular focus was on “Gray necromancy”, not quite willing to bargain with the damned, but knowing enough about souls to bind them back to their hosts, willingly or not.
He knew that Eghis would likely want human corpses, but he also had a plan to bring in income.
He built his tower close to, but not on top of, and ancient burial site, close enough that one could slip out to it and be back in less than a bour even if they had to dig up a body by hand. Meanwhile, he ordered the construction of a hunter’s lodge on the ground floor, both to act as a cover for other, less legal activities and bring in income by getting a small share of meat, bone and the sales from pelts.

A small entry fee from the cultists would help with the purchase of a single slave, of which he would try to find a intelligent one to take on as a personal apprentice. He could open a line of credit if need be, through that was more of a last resort. Eghis would get to teach the cultists, and who would notice if one or two of the crazier or nasty students went missing?

The arrangement is simple: You pull your own weight on labor, and you don’t reveal your craft outside of the tower until you are done. the entry fee covers room and board, and kitchen duty will be volunteer with a cook hired to make sure people don’t burn the place down.

With all that sorted, he began to search for potential patrons, and considering how best to make arrangements with the inquisition to slip under their radar.

[Shadowclaw777]

So what Ghazskull is referring to is that the Ruined Empire of Moss was the superior idea if you don’t want constant raids?

[Ghazkull]

On location rolls it was the nat 100. that should tell you everything ^^

[Dustan Hache]

but muh roleplay!

[Ghazkull]

Academy of the Deeper Studies of Reality Inversal (Nirur Torir)

The Highlands of Western Wenst are by and large thinly settled except for the important trading town of Olgen. The perfect place for your tower. You set up half a days travel from the town. Olgen has no large Inquisition presence like most of Wenst, but once you speak with the local representative it takes merely a few weeks for a more sizeable chunk of Inquisitors to set up in town. Negotiations are tense to say the least, even with the most radical of their members being here, you feel five minutes away from a stake at any given time.

The inquisition is indeed willing to front all your bills for now (within reason) at the cost of freely being able to draft from your school if they require Disaster specialists.

With such a prestigious patron at your back, you can clearly...no, no you can't. No mage in his right mind wants to work with the inquisition...and yet you find three of them willing to try.

Spoiler:  Sinell (click to show/hide)

Field of Study: Quantum-Space Thaumaturgy
Effectiveness: Lacking
Traits: Utter Madwoman

Sinell...is special. Yes lets leave it at that. she seems to do a lot of sticking pencils through folded papers...so theres that.

Spoiler:  Inorim (click to show/hide)

Field of Study: Elder Lore
Effectiveness: Lacking
Traits: Genius, Diligent, , Polite, Man of Wealth and Taste

Inorim is odd. He is leading in the field of Elder Lore, Magic Knowledge dealing with the beings beyond the Pale, but he is an absolutely awful teacher. Despite that everyone aknowledges him as a dilligent Genius who excels at his research, a polite, softspoken gentleman and a man of considerable means.

Spoiler:  Cleft (click to show/hide)

Field of Study: Thaumaturgic Containment
Effectiveness: Lacking
Traits: lazy, laissez-faire, uncaring

Cleft certainly isn't what one would expect from someone who professes to be an expert in the field of Thaumaturgic Containment. TC is less of a magical field and more how to apply various spells to reduce and contain magic and its effects. You could call it Anti-Magic studies if you wanted to...

With those three as options there is finally the students to consider.

Spoiler:  Applicants (click to show/hide)

Stepan
Intelligence: Average
Wealth: Wealthy
Traits:

Maria
Intelligence: Average
Wealth: Poor
Traits:

Othall
Intelligence: Average
Wealth: Poor
Traits: Thaumaturgic Affinity