The Magus University Superdraft

[DShomshak]

On 3/3/2023 at 6:57 PM, DShomshak said:

Option: Notorious Alumnus: Alexander Scriabin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Scriabin

 

Considering the importance of music to the Ars Hermetica, it should be no surprise that many students of the Paolini Institute become skilled musicians. Conversely, several well-known composers and musicians through history have been secret Hermetics. Or not so secret…

 

In life, Alexander Scriabin was better known as a virtuoso piano performer than as a composer. But he made no secret of his interest in Theosophy and the mystical theories of Rudolf Steiner. Some of his compositions, such as The Divine Poem and Prometheus: the Poem of Fire, had explicitly mystical themes. And his design for a “color organ” that correlated musical pitches with colors? Hermeticism 101. Scriabin sought to perform musical-magical workings on an epic scale, which would transform humanity. He not only strove to reach beyond the universe, he wanted to take the entire world with him.

 

So the Institute killed one of its most brilliant graduates.

 

It wasn’t done lightly. Magister Paolini conferred with faculty and other masters from Marsilio Ficino back to Orpheus. They agreed: Scriabin had to be stopped. For all things have their opposites: and as there is an All-Highest beyond the world, an Unmoved Movers, there is a contrary center of whirling motion; a drain as well as a source; a descent unto annihilation. As the Chaldaean Oracles warn the seeker beyond the world:

 

Step not down, therefore, to the Darkly-Shining World: beneath is spread the Abyss, forever formless, lightless, foul, joying in illusion, irrational, precipitous and sinuous, ceaselessly whirling around its own maimed depth, eternally wed to a shape inert, not breathing, and void.

 

[Aside: Dang, I wish I could write lines like that.]

 

And it was all in Scriabin’s music. Ecstasy was become madness. Well was his Sonata #9 called The Black Mass. His music was becoming, well, eldritch.

 

It was a well-executed… execution. A pimple on Scriabin’s lip. A nick to the pimple while shaving. And the infection spread into fatal septicemia.

 

Afterward, the Institute collected and destroyed Scriabin’s unpublished and incomplete works — especially the plans for his climactic working Mysterium. They saved the world.

 

But the rumor persists among Institute students that not all of Scriabin’s work was destroyed. That the mad composer’s own piano, modified and consecrated for his special purposes, is still hidden in some secret vault. And that when one should be alone in the Institute at the dead of night, sometimes one can hear faint strains of weird piano music carried through the walls. Do not try to find the source.

 

Dean Shomshak

Noon here, so it's time. Here's Scriabin again, as the Notorious Alumnus.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Sociotard]

Megamind organized his thoughts by dangling papers with isolated clues from the ceiling. He began with a Poem. Next to it were times he'd noticed other students trying to memorize the poem, who'd changed the suspect whenever he asked what class it was for. Odd. Students loved complaining about specific professors and the workloads they demanded.

 

Around the edge of the room were sylabi from dozens of classes. English. Philosophy. History. None of them seemed to reference that piece. He hung copies of a few other poems he'd overheard with similar circumstances. He hung references to numbers of instructors in the Conservatory for Misdirection with the actual instructor lists.

The counts were off by one. (Which Oz always denied.)

 

The poems generally discussed ways of knowing and perceiving, subjects tightly bound to the very mission of the Conservatory.

 

There had to be a connection.

 

He tried memorizing the poem himself. It wasn't bad, if a bit long. It began as a simple ode to natural beauty, before moving on to questions of whether it was possible to understand that natural world, or only possible to understand perceptions of it. If the reality could not be known then perhaps it was reality that was a lie and perception that was truth. The phenomenal world was more tactile than the noumenal, and that made it more real.

 

The strange ideas proved to be a bigger hurdle to memorizing the lines than the length of the poem. Megamind decided to try a walk in the park. Maybe immersing himself in those perceptions would help the poem make sense and stick a little better, and he had no better leads at the moment. He walked, reciting the poem, glancing at the paper as needed, until the paper was snatched from his hands.

 

He took off chasing the ... raven? Raven through the park until it dropped the pages. Megamind picked them up and resumed repetition while he put them in order.

"Ah, but if our perceptions are reality, is the perceiver real?" Megamind glanced to the man that asked the question. He was filthy, from his stained clothes to his matted beard, and even the patch over his left eye was caked with something Megamind declined to speculate on. The old man picked a worm out of a bowl and tossed it to one of the ravens in front of him.

 

The poem was finally back in order, beakmarks notwithstanding. "I know that I am thinking about your bird and perceive it, therefore I know that I am real. Mr?"

 

"Just call me Grimnir. And why do you call it a bird?"

 

Megamind rolled his eyes. "because I've seen birds before, and I know that 'bird' is the word for them."

 

"Your old perceptions appear to interpret your ones. Do you know what a rat king is?"

 

Megamind almost sat on the bench, thought of bugs in the old mans clothes, and sat on the path instead. "A bunch of rats somehow stuck in a single mass."

 

"A rat king rolls through a sewer. It rolls over another rat. Did the rat encounter a thing that is not a rat, or did it encounter a bunch of rats?"

 

"I ... a bunch of rats?"

 

"If you were tabula rasa, clean of all perceptions of birds and people saying 'bird' and black things and flying things, would the perception of a raven happen at all? But if you must have old perceptions to receive new ones, is there a you, or is there only the mass your perceptions? A rat king finding a rat. Here, there is something you should read."

 

Grimnir wrote a reference on Megaminds paper, and that was that. The papers wound up hung from the ceiling. So did others Grimnir suggested later. Was Grimnir the secret instructor? He'd never say. If he was, what was he teaching? Why would the Conservatory use a homeless man? Was he homeless, or was he something greater? Or was wondering if he was something other than what he appeared noumenal chauvinism?

 

Megamind wondered if he had enough room to hang paper from.

 

Professor: Grimnir (maybe Odin?)
Specialty: Epistemology and poetry

 

 

There. I had professors who appeared strong when they were weak, now I have one who appears weak but is strong.

[Old Man]

The Greater Chickamauga College of Magical Healing

The Freshman: Samwell Tarly (Game of Thrones)

 

"I always wanted to be a wizard."

 

 

"I'm sorry, but this is going to hurt. A lot."

 

 

[Psybolt]

Professor:  Lee Harvey Oswald (The Department of Truth)

Specialty:  Fictions and the Truth

 

[Bazza]

7x7 magic square on the side of a religious building in Spain. 

 

 

[Bazza]

6 hours ago, Bazza said:

Option 1: Visiting Professor: Archimedes.
 

Specialties: Mathematics, Physics, Astronomy, Mechanics, Engineering. 
 

https://imgflip.com/i/1l8rw0

 

 

[csyphrett]

I would like to pick John Constantine as my university pick as contract law professor

CES

[DShomshak]

The Paolini Institute has several powerful planetary spirits pre-bound to serve. These are called synocheis, "connectors," because they supply a connection to the celestial realms.

 

Some of these are housed in telestika positioned around the Institute building and grounds.

 

Only one synocheus, however, is actually considered part of the faculty. The Institute's departmental librarian is a spirit of Mercury: vastly intelligent, highly mobile when released from its home in a consecrated human skull, and with an infallible memory for everything it has ever witnessed or learned. And over the centuries, the spirit has learned a lot. Knowledge is power, making this spirit powerful indeed. Also... very snarky. Famous line: "We have now left reason and sanity junction. Next stop, Looneyville!"

 

Magister Paolinin has commanded the spirit to confine its service to students to answering questions, though; and asks students ta actually read the books, scrolls, tablets, and other writings in the Institute library, instead of just asking the spirit for the answer to their questions. The spirit may appear as simply a yellow-orange glow in the eyesockets of the skull. When released, it manifests as a cloud of yellow-orange sparks.

 

Even a bound spirit can have a price. The Librarian's price is that the Institute's library also has an amazing collection of girlie mags and romance novels.

 

Other Staff Member: Department Librarian, Bob the Skull

(Basic version from the Dresden Files books. Evil Bob and the TV version are still available.)

 

Dean Shomshak

[Cancer]

Making a double pick today.

 

First, a distinguished alum: M. C. Escher, urban mathemagician and architect

 

Second, a physical highlight on campus, one of Escher's famous designs.  The interior of the Student Union Building, partly seen here, with the main lobby and central information desk shown.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

54 minutes ago, DShomshak said:

The Paolini Institute has several powerful planetary spirits pre-bound to serve. These are called synocheis, "connectors," because they supply a connection to the celestial realms.

 

Some of these are housed in telestika positioned around the Institute building and grounds.

 

Only one synocheus, however, is actually considered part of the faculty. The Institute's departmental librarian is a spirit of Mercury: vastly intelligent, highly mobile when released from its home in a consecrated human skull, and with an infallible memory for everything it has ever witnessed or learned. And over the centuries, the spirit has learned a lot. Knowledge is power, making this spirit powerful indeed. Also... very snarky. Famous line: "We have now left reason and sanity junction. Next stop, Looneyville!"

 

Magister Paolinin has commanded the spirit to confine its service to students to answering questions, though; and asks students ta actually read the books, scrolls, tablets, and other writings in the Institute library, instead of just asking the spirit for the answer to their questions. The spirit may appear as simply a yellow-orange glow in the eyesockets of the skull. When released, it manifests as a cloud of yellow-orange sparks.

 

Even a bound spirit can have a price. The Librarian's price is that the Institute's library also has an amazing collection of girlie mags and romance novels.

 

Other Staff Member: Department Librarian, Bob the Skull

(Basic version from the Dresden Files books. Evil Bob and the TV version are still available.)

 

Dean Shomshak

 

Jumped the gun just a little bit again, but I think you're safe. Love Bob the Skull. 

[Old Man]

The Greater Chickamauga College of Magical Healing

 

Star Pupil: Rapunzel

 

"Flower gleam and glow, Let your power shine, Make the clock reverse, Bring back what once was mine,

Heal what has been hurt, Change the fates' design, Save what has been lost, Bring back what once was mine,

What once was miiiiiine!"

 

 

 

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

The Puck Institute’s Freshman is Alice Liddell!

 

There’s something just a bit off about that Alice girl. When she came to the Puck Institute for Culinary Arts, she was curious and unflappable. The other students often used her as a guinea pig. It was easy to do; She seems singularly unable to resist any thing labeled “Drink Me” whether she knows what it is or not. This has led to some… interesting outcomes. And multiple meetings with the dean. 

 

Alice has changed, though. She can be seen wandering the halls with a grin on her face, giggling to herself. They say she’s gone mad, but she laughs that off and says, “We’re all mad here.” Alice is a friendly girl with a genuine fondness for tea and cakes. She has arranged her schedule so that classes do not interfere with tea time, and she usually invites classmates to attend. Her special blends show real promise. 

 

 
 

[Enforcer84]

"All I'm saying, is that she has scored suspiciously high on a variatey of tests." Professor Heterodyne kept her snarl in check when talking to the Dean. "I know you think she's a real genius, but this is suspicious, not just exciting.

 

Dean Clarke nodded with the wooden face of a man who'd had this discussion for almost three years. 

 

"Not even Cid's toadies have been this coddled!" Heterodyne's voice grew a measure. She could feel the spark in her bubbling up in her displeasure. 

 

"I don't coddle anyone, Agatha," Cid looked up from his latest blueprints and then pointed to three corrections. "The girl's not a fraud, if that's what you're worried about."

 

"AUGH! She's gotten to you, too?" Professor Heterodyne rolled her eyes. 

 

"Perhaps," Dean Clarke put his most pleasant face on and gave his star faculty member the nudge she would need to finally bond with a student rather than just scare the spells out of them, "If you are so concerned with Miss Cochrane's test scores, you would prefer to keep her under your watchful eye? Maybe become her faculty advisor?"

 

Agatha's head snapped towards her dean an she let out a low growl. "You know I have my own research, as per our agreement."

 

"And you wanted me to find you an Assistant." He countered.

 

"She's a toddler!" the harried professor threw her hands up and grumbled, "Fine. Fine, Arthur. Fine. Fine. Bring her to my office, I'll interview her for my assistant spot."

 

That afternoon, just past the door marked "BEWARE! TECHNOMATIC EXPERIMENTATION IN PROGRESS!!!," the dean and a pleasant-lookng brunette who was a fair bit younger than most of the students Agatha saw in her classes stood before her. Now having seen the student, her arguments against her seemed...foolish. 

 

"Say hello, Miss Cochran," Dean Clarke said with grandfatherly gentleness. 

 

"Hi, I'm Jordan. I never sleep. I don't know why. Dean Clarke said you need an assistant and that's great because I need something to do with my free time. This will allow me to better judge which of the Magitechnical discipline is most appealing I can't decide right now, Alchemy is beautiful with its colors and sensory stimulation, Aeronautics is exciting and flying is so fun, Automata are cute and you can make them dance..." she paused for a moment, as if realizing she was rambling on but it was just for a breath, "Battlemancy is fun and I once made a lodestone gauntlet and punched a bully downt he block, I've tried putting making a chart and a list and then a poem about each discipline to see which spoke to me," She pulled out a very harried-looking binder stuffed with all manner of paper, parchment, and even metal sheets with equations etched into them. "But anyway, Dean Clarke says you're the perfect instructor for me and that I should help you as your lab assisstant. Because I never sleep."

 

Agatha stared for a moment before she grabbd the girl's shoulders and pulled her towards herself, turning to Dean Clarke and shouting, "CAN I KEEP HER!?"

 

Star-Pupil:  Jordan Cochrane

 

http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/sr4ef1777c.jpg

[death tribble]

The Grad Student

Nitro

He blows things up a lot so the Doc likes him

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitro_(comics)

[Psybolt]

The Freshman:  Doyle Dormammu (Strange Academy)

 

 

[Sociotard]

I want our school to have a secret fraternity, but none popped to mind and wading through TV Tropes seems like cheating. Go with the classics!

 

Option: The Skull and Bones (secret fraternity)

Spoiler

 

 

[DShomshak]

Bob approves. He can be the skull. But he needs to know:

 

Will there be parties? With girls?

 

Dean Shomshak

[csyphrett]

I would like to pick Kim Possible as my freshman.

CES

[Cancer]

1 hour ago, DShomshak said:

Bob approves. He can be the skull. But he needs to know:

 

Will there be parties? With girls?

 

Dean Shomshak

 

The Department of Modern Urban Magics will happily invite Bob (and a number of others) to their parties.  It's one of our specialties, which a few of our coming picks will illustrate.

[Bazza]

Star Pupil: Thomas Taylor. 

 

Photo below is the Thomas Taylor Collection, 33 volumes. Translations of Pythagoreans, Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Porphyry, the Chaldean Oracles, Orphic & Bacchic Mysteries, and many more classical texts. Taylor also provided his on commentaries, and original contributions to the tradition.   

Yes, you can buy these. I have one of them. 

 

Extracts from the descriptions of some of the volumes.
 

The works included in this volume display not only the extraordinary grasp of Platonic-Pythagorean teaching which Taylor possessed, but also reveals the pathway which led to this intellectual prize. Thomas Taylor's first exploration of truth in his youth and early adulthood was through mathematics: it was only when he discovered that the early Greek writers of mathematics could only be properly understood when approached through Aristotle and Plato that he turned his attention to these philosophers, and those who followed them. 
 

Of the works included in this volume the Theoretic Arithmetic of the Pythagoreans (first published in 1816) is the most extensive: as a summary of the philosophic and mystical properties of number and mathematical operations there has been nothing published in the modern age which approaches its comprehensive scope or its profundity. The Theoretic Arithmetic blazes with the bright light of true thought which eclipses the numerous modern books on number which, if esoteric, so often are mere listings of associations of numbered things; or which, if exoteric, are little more than a series of measurements. 

 

(You can read the Theoretic Arithmetic of the Pythagoreans here https://universaltheosophy.com/tt/1816_Theoretic-Arithmetic.pdf )
 

Proclus’ highly mystical commentary on Euclid’s Elements, in which the course of the first book is treated as pathway to the vision of “real being”: To be able to see what these commentaries reveal it is necessary to energise the spiritual intuition, relying on innate ideas. 

Or, as Proclus tells us, “geometry is extended through the universality of things, contains in itself the forms of all things and according to its supreme part surveys true beings, and teaches by images the properties of divine ornaments, and the powers of intellectual forms”. For example, he says the point represents Bound, the proceeding straight line, Infinite, and the Circle the energy of Intellect. He ‘places’ these forms firmly with Intelligible Reality.

This is one of the great books of the Platonic Tradition. Its scope is the whole sphere of `Authentic Reality' which Plato recommends to all who aspire to wisdom, and which Plotinus outlines in his Enneads. It takes as its starting point The One - the highest and most abstract idea that the human mind can affirm, - and follows dialectically the unfolding of this through division, analysis, demonstration, and definition.

 

[death tribble]

5 hours ago, csyphrett said:

I would like to pick Kim Possible as my freshman.

CES

You do know that Drakken and Shego are on staff ?

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

10 hours ago, csyphrett said:

I would like to pick Kim Possible as my freshman.

CES

 

Ooh, shots fired!

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

5 hours ago, death tribble said:

You do know that Drakken and Shego are on staff ?

 

I'll wager he does. 

[death tribble]

I was not going to pick her but this will make life on the quad interesting

[Hermit]

I'm a day behind so here's yesterday's pick...

 

See you again in 1 and a half hours

 

***********

"Anything else I can do for you, Dean Sparkle?" The shaved headed young man inquired earnestly.

 

The young man was such a sweetie, Twilight Sparkle thought. Despite some truly traumatic moments in his child hood and far too many years on the run, he had a heart full of love and far preferred making friends to other means of interaction. It was one of the many reasons he was acing his courses in the department classes and their star pupil. That and his immense understanding of harmony as a concept period that he utilized for his elemental magics.

 

He was also, she noted as she looked about at the unconscious and wounded assassins who had come after her  Horn (She knew they hadn't been sent by Dean Brown, he would have wanted her flanks *Shudder*), scary as hell. Transforming back to her two legged form, she smoothed her dress, "No,  I think stopping evil assassins will just about cover it. I'll have others tend to the clean up."

 

"I don't mind helping" He moved to pick things up, "I could sweep it away with a wind if you like?"

 

"Young man," She said gently "I have my own magics, and besides, we don't want others to feel left out or redundant."

 

Despite his many years of world wandering, the student blushed, "Yes, ma'am. Then happy to help."  He seemed to ponder "Hey, I could go shopping for my girlfriend while I'm out and about."

 

Dean Twilght Sparkle approved, "She'd love that. It's very thoughtful."

 

Smiling, the young student took his leave!

 

"He's probably going to marry the girl as soon as they graduate," Sparkle chuckled to herself.

 

Star Pupil Pick: Aang (From Avatar the Last Air Bender)

(The college years)