verse info.

[halts]

I) the academy

verse info — a long time ago, magic came into this world. five eidolons, each part of different forces of nature, shared with humanity five different movements of magic. like all creation myths and beginning stories, magic didn't come alone. with the eidolons and the share of their craft came a different force. it was quickly known that incorrectly channeling magic could burn your body up from the inside out; your soul, however, was still leftover, and it would be absorbed by the sprawling mass called the scourge. responsible for the likes of earthquakes, blackouts, and plague, the scourge is the exact opposing force to all magic. it hungers, and it devours everything in its path. — but none of that is important, really. all you need to learn about is the academy. the academy — present day, magic exists for some, not all. all those with magical ability are invited to the academy at the age of 21. your strange way of never getting caught sneaking out as a kid, or that uncanny intuition you have? that's magic. each student is taught to refine their magical abilities, but is also taught by the Headmistress to discover what their eidos is. — a student's eidos is typically likened to their soul's true purpose. it is predominantly a specific way of shaping their magic. an eidos can be anything from pyrokinesis to telepathy, or something much more specific (think: x-men abilities). they are 'sorted' after acceptance into the academy into their respective movement. while all students are placed in a movement, some can straddle the 'cusp' between two, depending on what their actual eidos is. feasibly, students can study any form of magic in their respective movement(s), but it requires dedicated study and can be very difficult, like swimming against the current. — tldr: a student's 'major' = their eidos, their 'department' = movement. — movements are as follows: prima, the study of elements and primal forces (water, fire, earth, wind, light, etc.); tarakhe, or entropy (chaos magic, time manipulation, visions of the future, luck); fortia, force magic (barriers, defensive/battle magic, telekinesis); spiritus for spirit magic (necromancy, teleportation, astral projection and the like); haimatos, for all things to do with blood and health (healing, haemokinesis, disease, life, death). — the goal of the academy is to help train its students in their magic, control their eidos, and then let them back into the world to act as combatants against the scourge. alumni of the academy typically join a coven in their city to keep 'battle-ready', much like a volunteer police force, but otherwise lead non-magical lives and reintegrate back into 'normal' society. others don't, and stay on to be instructors at the school. — the school can only be accessed by opening any door with a magical key, given to alumni upon their graduation (all students cannot leave the academy grounds unless taken by someone with this key, or said key is acquired/stolen). this key, as it is magical, can look like anything from a library card, a bus pass, or a generic house-key. — the academy's curriculum is strictly magical, though courses on sciences are also taught in conjunction to help aid a student's individual understanding of his/her eidos. students are expected to pass tests, ace exams, and attend their lectures, as well as live in the house of their movement. (those on the cusp get to pick one.) they also work together in smaller group workshops of five, each from one respective movement, to focus on individual control of their eidos and how to work in harmony with other magical users. these smaller teams are kept the same for the entire school year and are reshuffled each year. campus culture gives each student an informal 'name' that is thematically connected to their eidos (think x-men: "cyclops", "wolverine", etc.). — there are many branches of the academy: new york, barcelona, london, dubai, buenos aires, tokyo, moscow, mumbai, johannesburg. as of 2019, the london, moscow, and mumbai branches are closed. the most recent school to be closed is the new york academy. — outside of the academy, the use of magic and the control of one's eidos is managed by a force located in reykjavik, named the aviary. the name given to agents of the aviary is either a falcon or kestrel, depending on gender. in essence, they're a magical interpol, and uncontrollable eidos manifestations have resulted in death of the individual or flatout nullification before. the aviary are also the prevailing monitors and experts in all things scourge.

[ If you choose magic you will never be able to return to the life you once lived. Your world may be more exciting, but it will also be more dangerous. And once you begin to walk the path of magic, you can never step off of it. ]