Master of Ice and Darkness
Overview
The Master of Ice and Darkness is an Imperial title in the Conclave. It grants the ability to direct the studies of the Icy Crag of the Eternal Sun, a College of Magic specialising in Summer magic. The Icy Crag stands in Volchitrava in Miekarova, and the eternal Cathan Canae serves as a patron of the magicians and their students.
A college of magic allows the creation of new formulaic rituals. A formulaic ritual can take decades to complete, requiring extensive resources and many dangerous experiments. A college of magic speeds this process up dramatically by providing a forum for expert magicians and magical theorists to collaborate, providing them with good quality equipment and the guidance of a single individual who directs their research.
Responsibilities
The Master of Ice and Darkness has the final say in the research agenda of the Icy Crag. Other magicians may approach them and suggest areas which might benefit their particular areas of study, or serve the interests of the Empire. As with both the Provost of the Halls of Knowledge, and the Dean of the Lyceum, it is possible for a Master to indulge their own interests, or to demand payment from people wishing to use the college's facilities to formulate personal rituals. Nor is there any requirement that the rituals formulated at the Icy Crag become part of Imperial lore, or be shared with anyone else.
Not all the magicians associated with the Icy Crag live within its glittering walls. it is perhaps unsurprising given the relatively new status of the college, and its somewhat isolated location, that many Summer magicians (especially those in the south) prefer to correspond with the scholars here rather than relocate their homes closer. Still, a number of Varushkan, Winterfolk, Navarr and Dawnish have moved their homes north and settled in the vicinity of the college to take advantage of its facilities and libraries.
Still, the halls of the Icy Crag are open to magicians from all corners of the Empire, as long as they are prepared to commit some of their time to assisting whatever research is being prioritised by the Master.
As a college with an eternal patron, the magicians of the Icy Crag has a vested interest in maintaining good relations between the Empire and the Summer eternal. In particular, a reliable Summer archmage can only help the college to prosper in the coming years.
Benefits
Ritual Texts
The magicians of a college can be directed to research the formula of a new ritual so that it can be mastered. The ritual must already exist in the form of an arcane projection, but there is no requirement to select one they have personally commissioned. A college can work on formalising one ritual at a time, and the research may take anywhere from a season to several years depending on the complexity and the resources available. The amount of time it takes to complete research into a ritual depends on the magnitude of that ritual.
It requires three months (one season) for every 10 ranks of magnitude the final ritual will have.
If research is not completed, the college keeps notes on their work so far, and may resume it at a later date from where it was left off.
At the completion, the master of the college receives a ritual text suitable for use in mastering the ritual. They may keep the knowledge of the ritual restricted to themselves and their allies, or through a Declaration of Imperial Lore the Conclave can have that ritual added to the wider body of Imperial Lore, making it available to any ritual magician in the Empire.
Specialisation
A college may be created with a speciality in one of the six realms of magic. This specialisation is free, and is almost always declared when the college is commissioned. When the college is directing research towards a project that is part of the speciality lore, the work proceeds at the rate of 15 ranks of magnitude each season.
Furthermore, when working in the speciality realm, the master of the college can increase the rate at which the ritual is researched by spending money to purchase rare materials, esoteric tomes and exceptional equipment, and to secure the temporary assistance of reclusive or avaricious experts.
The first five ranks of additional research in a season cost 2 Thrones. The next five ranks cost a further 5 Thrones. The next five ranks cost a further 10 Thrones, and so on doubling the price for each additional five ranks of research within the same season.
A college can have only one specialisation; changing a specialisation once it has been declared would be extremely expensive.
Costs
- Materials: 60 wains of Mithril, 60 wains of Weirwood and 60 wains of White Granite
- Time: 1 year
- Labour: 45 Thrones
- Upkeep: 25 Thrones (but see below)
There are a limited number of magicians in the Empire who are prepared to help with research of new rituals. This means that each new college of magic that is constructed will have an increasing upkeep cost - to reflect the fact that it must pay more to entice those independent magicians that remain to work there.
Existing Colleges of Magic
The list includes all existing colleges of magic in the Empire.