[Arcane Bureau] Sorting out the Mess (Private Carly and Llanwyn)

[Atl Myrsa]

OOC: for the sake of everyone sanity were skipping the intros and getting to the meeting. Everyone in your first post please just include your arrival and sitting down at the meeting.

IC:

Ponutis 1

Located on the second floor of the building was a large room designed for group meetings. Today the room had been turned into a meeting room for the Magus Council. In the center of the room was a large round desk with the middle missing allowing on to sit in the middle. The chair also allowed for rotation so one could look at any corner of the room when they wanted to.

Desks were also stationed at each of the corners of the room facing inward towards the center. A desk was placed inbetween each of the corner desk except for along the wall were the door stood.

Atl sat at his current desk he was simple dressed in a loss fiting white shirt and straight legged white pants. A black silk open robe was his last adornment with the seal of the Imperial Magus on the left breast. It was the way Atl liked it.

The council was in session to begin.

The Sorcerer was a human male of Master level named Rosirt

The Song was a female halfling of adapt level named Posetia

The Druid was a female human of adapt level named Iris

The Thuam was a male human of adapt level named Johanthan

The Elementalist was a male human of master level named Samarithan


One each desk was a list of topics to be covered by the council

1) Condition of the Schools
2) Condition of private teaching
3) Establishing universal acceptance rules
4) The Mage guild
5) Establishing school guidelines
6) Teaching Licenses

[Llanwyn Siannodel]

He arrived promptly and took his seat, skirting across the floor and nodding to those in attendance. He had met them prior and knew them to be respected in their spheres. And now he was here, placed on the same level with the others, a hedge mage and the voice for Mysticism education in the empire. An honor for certain.

He chose to wear his blue robes this brightening, the same he had proudly worn as a Master Mystic before the mishap. They still powered him with a sense of pride, though he couldn't help but remember what had happened and the grief it had brought him. Still, in his heart he was a hedge magi, a student of mind and nature.

Llanwyn took a seat behind his desk, his pet Cabbit crouching beneath him on the floor. He looked down upon Espe and grinned, reaching down to scrath her behind the ears. "Come on up," he said to her, motioning her to sit on his lap. It was her favorite place and she gladly took the seat. Llanwyn stroked her soft fur and eyed Atl, nodding and silently saying "Serale" to him.

[Carly Jr'ana]

She'd spent a while now with her fancy new title, getting settled into the idea of representing all the Ikomancers in the Empire to the newly established advisory council. Unlike other mages Carly was quite set in wearing her usual fare of clothing, she would be impressive enough a statement to the council with her age, not to put fancy robes on top of that.

She found her way to the meeting room well before the meeting and took her seat, casting a cursory glance over the agenda for the day. Her eye caught the spelling mistake as she fussed with the large rag doll in her lap, the doll barring a striking resemblence to its' owner. Upon her head sat her circlet, and from a pocket she took out a rather plain looking goblet.

Looking up finally she cast her eyes over all the other councilors, already intimately aware with what they looked like and how they were holding themselves, her echolocation swept back and forth like some fantastical sixth sense. She smiled serenly around at them all, pointed teeth glimmering in the light.

[Atl Myrsa]

Atl looked at everyone and stood up. "Serale and welcome. Let us beging the first meeting of the Mage Council. I do not want this council to stand on ceremony or protical. We are here to work, and as such will leave ceremony to the Senate. All I have to saying is may Wisdom be our ally at this time."

He picked up the paper. "First Order of buisness. Condition of the Arcane Schools. I haven't had time as of yet to visit all of the major schools, and most certianly not the minor ones, but I have seen enough to start with a few comments. The general pratices for accpetance is pay the fee and get the lessons, the students tend to have private lessons, and most of what is taught is in that nature of battle spells. The master also follow their own course when doing things."

He looked around the room. "These are observations not my views. I would like to hear what you all of to say, and what are the feelings about current pratices and so on."

[Llanwyn Siannodel]

Llanwyn waited a moment and then spoke up. He had learned himself in this manner once and despised it immensely. He preferred the "quest" involved in seeking out a teacher, though that wasn't for everyone. Still, he found that it built character and a love for the arcane. He cleared his throat to signal that he would speak and began...

"I will stand behind your observations as I have also seen them," his large almond eyes looking around the room at the other magi present. "The current entrance practices for the schools I'm familiar with are doing little more than watering down arcana in the masses I'm afraid."

He paused for a moment, but with a thought on his mind. "And I believe the exclusively offensive teaching does nothing for a mage's understanding of his craft, only what it can do to others."

[Atl Myrsa]

Master Samarithan stood up and spoke. "I am in agreement. To often we have idiots show up trying to weild the power of the universe. Some type of test really is necissary." He contiontined "As for what is being taught. Offensive spells are just as necissary as anything else."

[Llanwyn Siannodel]

Llanwyn agreed that some sort of test was necessary. At least then their aptitude for arcana could be tested before they waste the time of a busy teacher. As for the offensive spell comment, Llanwyn agreed, but had something to add.

"You're right Master Samaritham, they are as necessary... but they are not all there is to arcana. Too often students are taught ONLY the offensive spells. Even you can see the gross negligence in such teaching methods."

[Carly Jr'ana]

Carly nodded her head in mild agreement, waving a hand around half heartedly to assertain she agreed in general with the motion. She had no experience personally with seeing the sole training of battle spells, but she could agree with the assessment of the procedure of learning magic.

Carly waited for a pause in the speech to have her voice heard, nodding an agreement to the mystic councilor.
"Should we not be concentrating on the abilities of magic, rather then training everyone to be blasting bits and pieces off each other? A curriculum aimed at more general useful skills would give a better grounding, and result in more useful mages for the Empire." she paused here, taking stock of her thoughts "On the topic of how a student applies to an academy, it would seem we are dependent on most aspiring mages to seek an academy and the funds for their training. How many potential great mages are we missing out on by not testing all people of age? How often has a student had to sell all their possessions and family heirlooms to afford arcana education?"

[Llanwyn Siannodel]

Llanwyn couldn't resist...

"Do we not want people of ambition in our schools? Those who have the passion for arcana will seek out an institution. They will do what it takes to pay for it... it's ambitious students that we want."

He looked to Carly specifically. "The cost associated with testing every single person "of age" in the Empire would be astronomical."

[Carly Jr'ana]

Carly perked an eyebrow up at the remark, as if to disregard it as nonsense; to further her point she rebuked the remark.

"I am not a mathematician, I would not know what an astronomical cost would look like. However if every academy assigned one master a number of surrounding villages and towns, and their own city, and that master had one entire era in which to test all those of age. Then no, I would not see the cost as astronomical, besides, once the initial cost had been dealt with there would be significantly less potentials to test every era. Or perhaps you have forgotten the toll the pox had upon the Empire? A toll which might have been a lesser number if we had a greater number of mages to throw at the problem.

As to ambition? How is one to know they should have ambition if they can not even see their is a ladder to climb? How many with ambition have come to the doorsteps of the Empires academies to discover they lack magical talent at all?"

[Llanwyn Siannodel]

Llanwyn simply looked at her. He couldn't disagree with her idea more. If they were looking to recruit more magi, perhaps they should put an advertisement in the Herald. Otherwise, was this really going to be the direction the mage council was going to move in? To ask the already understaffed schools to go out and actively overcrowd themselves. Seriously? He simply shrugged. This girl was full of potential as a mage, sure, but if she was the pinnacle example of Iconomancers in the Empire, this council was in trouble.

Llanwyn looked to Atl for his feedback.

[Atl Myrsa]

Atl looked around and nodded his head. "I agree that sometimes people lack the knowledge that they could become Magi. The initial cost would be huge, but would decrease over time. My concern is how do we down play what is going on. The population is still realing form Paxia and Narim, if this office suddenly announced it was requiring manditor searches for all potential spell casters we could very well end up with a mob at our door."

Atl looked around and then contiuned. "Also talent doesn't imply interest. Despite it all remember they are citzens of the empire, and are allowed to choose their paths. Would we require thoughts who "passed" to become Magi or to just inform them of their potential?"

[Carly Jr'ana]

Carly nodded her head, there might very well be public outrage over such an announcement. On the other hand, the public didn't need to know such a thing was occuring. And there were always other options.

"The public need not know we were searching for mages, infact if we were to employ a number of Master Ikomancers we could set it up so that potential mages found themselves inadvertantly found by those searching for them. It would certainly lower the costs of testing every villager and towns person.

As to interest? Why would we supply an unwilling caster with the ability to cast spells that could then harm us? It is not mandatory to become a mage, but I would think most would jump at the chance."

[Z'kron]

A smile as the Imperial High Sage rose to his feet with a slight rustling of robes and his trademark green hair. Having remained quiet thus far, his interjection might have been slightly unexpected- though it was certainly acceptable, given his position and rather well-known expertise in the fields of arcane research.
"Initiates and the initial teaching are not things we should be particularly concerned about at the moment. A man with a good knife is, relatively speaking, more dangerous than most initiates to anyone except themselves; and the fact that a single master can produce them limits our ability. If there is to be an increase in the number of mages, it should be carefully monitored, certainly, but perhaps we should focus on apprentice levels and up."
The druid shrugged in a slightly nonchalant way, before turning his gaze onto the others.
"Testing is difficult. It requires us to use masters, or at least highly competent adepts. And those are few and far between. Morover, even those who can reach initiate level do not necessarily have potential for further study; and so on. Most mages barely have the potential to scrape past an apprenticeship. But I am no expert on Ikos; and so I shall refrain from further comment with no evidence to back it.
Additionally, the schools themselves have little desire to take on masses of new student. The more students that are taken on, the less time a master can devote to each student. This could cause difficulty. We have to balance practicality here, and deal with the current issue of mage regulation before attempting to increase the numbers. Give me an initiate who only doubles my workload and I'll show you a genius..." he ended with a wry, dry smile.

[Llanwyn Siannodel]

Llanwyn nodded. The sage was right.

"I agree... perhaps focusing on apprentice level and higher is the wisest of paths. Otherwise we could be spending a lot of time and resources on mages that simply aren't capable of advancing in their studies."

He looked to the others... "Does anyone know the drop-out rate of Initiates before they consider Apprentice training? Or perhaps of Apprentices in training? I suggest starting there, giving these Apprentices the best possibly chance and experience we can in order to nurture their possible future as an asset to the empire."