📖The Argent Spire Academy

🎓 Overview

The Argent Spire stands as the most prestigious magical academy in Tarsus, a towering bastion of arcane learning overseen by the Magister Tribunal. Students entering in their teens, endure a decade of rigorous study, and graduate only if they survive its trials. The Spire is both beacon and cage: a place of unparalleled knowledge, but also strict oversight, ensuring magic serves the law and does not stray into forbidden paths.

🪶 The Circles

Students are sorted into Circles, each tied to one of the Twelvefold Faith’s core gods. Their robes are brown, accented with the color of their patron. Rivalries between Circles often echo the divine conflicts of their patrons.

• Circle of Shirkan (Iskari, the Verdant Mother) – Brown & Green. “From seed to stone, we endure.” Focus: endurance, earth, transmutation, and protection.

• Circle of Asvari (Selvara, Lady of the Moonveil) – Brown & Purple. “Secrets guide the heart.” Focus: illusion, enchantment, and subtlety.

• Circle of Tamosh (Tharos, the Warbringer) – Brown & Red. “Through fire, conquest.” Focus: war-magic, ambition, evocation.

• Circle of Keledar (Kaelith, the Whisperer) – Brown & Yellow. “Knowledge lights the path.” Focus: prophecy, forbidden knowledge, wards.

• Circle of Varian (Aurelion, the Dawnfather) – Brown & Orange. “By light we judge, by law we stand.” Focus: abjuration, order, renewal.

• Circle of Manun (Veydran, Lord of Storms) – Brown & Blue. “Storm and sea, freedom unbound.” Focus: weather, elemental conjuring, chaos.

• Circle of Elaris (Seraphyne, the Radiant Tide) – Brown & Silver. “Compassion tempers power.” Focus: healing, mercy, restoration.

• Circle of Zorath (Zorath, the Chainsworn) – Brown & Grey. “Chains bind chaos.” Focus: law, warding, magical discipline.

• Circle of Eryndra (Eryndra, Flame of the Heart) – Brown & Pink. “Passion ignites all things.” Focus: passion, artistry, transformation.

🧑‍🏫 Faculty

The Spire’s teaching staff are a mixture of loyal Argent Collegium professors, Tribunal appointees, and rare outsiders.

• Headmaster: Head Professor Ophior Xowyn — wise, patient, balances Tribunal oversight with student welfare.

• Magisters: Marisol Whitaker (Divination), Arcturion Azeth (Evocation).

• Collegium Professors:

  • Phaqille Vohric (Abjuration) – Stern protector.

  • Jornik Weldmor (Conjuration) – Jovial experimenter.

  • Siphanien Erlamin (Enchantment) – Charismatic, mentored by a reclusive Archmage.

  • Otarum Katal (Illusion) – Unsettling, whispered Umbra Covenant past.

  • Imninelle Exaryl (Alchemy) – Volatile, influenced by the Circle of Nine Flames.

  • Malrick (Magical Law) – To be detailed.

  • Liora Thessaly (Transmutation) – eccentric genius.

  • Aluzohra Epianne (Rhetoric and etiquette)

• Outsiders:

  • Halan Bristroot (Botany, Keepers of the Way) – patient, nature-bound.

  • Edium Rajahr (Containment Wards, Stability)

Other Key Figures:

• Groundskeeper: Garrun Mossbeard — warm gnome tied to the Spire’s living stones.

• Janitor: Khilseith — grumpy half-elf who cleans up magical residue; possibly more than he seems.

⚖️ The Argent Collegium

The Spire’s own sworn order of professors and researchers, this is usually granted to people who have been within the Argent Spire Order for a long period.

• Symbol: A silver flame cupped in an open hand.

• Motto: “In silver we bind, in silver we shine.”

• Purpose: To guard and teach lawful magic under the Tribunal’s oversight. Membership is an honorific to professors and research who have taught or served decades.

• Banned Magic: Necromancy, Shadowmancy, Blood Magic, Planar Summoning (Demons, Devils, Planar Entities)

🏛️ Traditions & Rituals

• Initiation: The Binding of Silver — First-years prick their palm over the Tribunal Chamber’s silver flame; their Circle sigil manifests on their hand.

• Graduation: The Vigil of Stars — Students cast a final spell in the Astral Observatory under Tribunal judgment; success grants them a permanent mark.

• The Midnight Rite (unofficial) — Older students haze initiates with illusions in the Argent Gardens before the Binding.

🎉 Festivals & School Events

• The Silver Tourney (Dueling Tournament): Annual competition in the Dueling Courts, judged by Tribunal Magisters. Winners gain prestige — losers scars.

• The Starlight Vigil: Once per season, students gather in the Astral Observatory for a night of divination and prophecy under the constellations.

• Circle Wars: Rival Circles compete in illusion-warped challenges within the Argent Gardens, testing creativity, teamwork, and cunning.

• The Day of Renewal: Held at year’s end; students create enchantments and alchemical marvels, displaying them publicly. Tribunal judges the work harshly, but the city marvels at the spectacle.

🕯️ Atmosphere

The Argent Spire is equal parts wonder and menace: its professors inspire and terrify, its Magisters Tribunal looms as both protector and jailor, and its stones seem to whisper of secrets long hidden. To study here is to walk the knife’s edge between enlightenment and annihilation.