The Magus University Superdraft

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

2 minutes ago, L. Marcus said:

So ... about 19:00 CET?

 

Google tells me that is correct. (I'm not familiar with CET.)

[Old Man]

14 minutes ago, Logan D. Hurricanes said:

 

Google tells me that is correct. (I'm not familiar with CET.)

 

Central Eastern Time

[Cancer]

Communist Ersatz Time.

 

See also https://time.gov/

 

[DShomshak]

Counting down...

 

Dean Shomshak

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

[DShomshak]

And the radio tells me it's 10 a.m.!

 

DEPARTMENT: The Paolini Institute of Hermetic Studies

 

Some people assert that the feelings and conceptions of our souls can by the force of the imagination be rendered volatile and corporeal, so that, in accordance with their quality, they can be carried up to certain planets and, affected and strengthened by the power of the planet, they will come down again to us and will obey us in whatever we want.

— Fabio Paolini, Hebdomades

 

 

Welcome, student, to the Paolini Institute! Here you will learn the mystery and mastery of Hermetic Theurgy. The Institute dates back to the 17^th century of the Common Era, but Hermetic magic goes back much further. The Ars Hermetica received its modern formulation from Late Medieval to Renaissance magi such as Marsilio Ficino, Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim and our Institute’s founder, Fabio Paolini. You may have encountered their works before — likely, given your choice of studies — but you may well come to know them much better in the course of your studies.

 

As you should know, Hermetic magic begins with the premise that the planets and signs of astrology (including the Sun and Moon) radiate subtle, mystic influences. Unlike the vulgar and ignorant astrologers, however, a Hermetic Magus does not seek to forecast the future based on planetary positions. He (or she, ahem, this is the Twenty-First Century) concentrates those energies through their affinities to colors, odors, musical tones, metals, gemstones, plants and animals, the elements, and symbolic images such as Tarot cards or the gods of myth. To these we add the ineffable names of God and His angels, and other words and sigils of power.

 

In this way you may evoke spirits of the planets and bind them to your will, consecrate and imbue items of powerful magic, and even enter the spiritual realms of those same planets. Ultimately you may hope to ascend the celestial realms as if they were a ladder, to go beyond them — passing beyond the stars to the Primum Mobile — the veritable Throne of God — and obtain mastery of Time itself. For the heavens are the primordial clack and calendar embedded in the Universe itself and are thus the means to comprehend and obtain that supreme power.

 

Just to clear up a common misunderstanding: The spirits we call upon are not demons (except in the classical sense of daimones). We do not summon the fiends of Hell. By which I mean, yes we can, and sometimes do, but only if is absolutely necessary. Any attempt to summon demons without the supervision of a master shall result in immediate dismissal from this Institute.

 

MOTTO (translated from the Latin): The Lord by wisdom founded the Earth, by understanding he established the heavens. (Proverbs 3:19)

 

The entrance hall of the Institute’s building features a large circle of dark blue slate inlaid with a Greek cross of golden sandstone and stars of white marble, with the motto written in a band of mosaic around the rim. The cross and Bible verse help to contain something the Institute very much wants not to be released.

 

Dean Shomshak

 

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

I have been asked to post for Enforcer84 as he has an engagement.

 

He selects

Location/Domain: The Ada Lovelace School of Magitechnology 

(Also known as the College of Artifice)

Dean: Arthur C Clarke

 

[DShomshak]

DEAN: Fabio Paolini

 

Students at the Institute receive the great honor of meeting its founder, Fabio Paolini himself, who still directs the school as its Magister Ludi (schoolmaster) more than 300 years after his death. No, this is not some horrible, grotesque necromancy (wrong department!) Paolini achieved the greatest feat of Hermetic magic by ascending the Celestial Ladder, passing the sphere of the stars, and reached the Primum Mobile. In so doing, he learned time travel. He carries a brass disk inscribed with the signs of the Zodiac, with concentric rings for the seven planets of classical astrology. By setting the rings so the sigil-inscribed gemstone representing each planet are in the configuration the actual planets would have at a given time, he moves to that time.

 

However, Magister Paolini is not immortal. He is not even 300 years old. Whenever he meetsw himself in his own past, he effectively splits to create another version of himself, which then can travel in time. By now there’s at least a dozen of him jumping backwards and forwards in time, fulfilling the duties of headmaster in shifts, never more than a few months at a time. This is terribly confusing for the other professors, since the Paolini who just stepped into the office might never have met them before, or only know them from their own future. The Paolinis keep extensive notes in their office so they can keep abreast of who’s currently in the Institute, and what problems other time-versions of himm know are about to occur because that version of him learned about them in the future.

 

Magister Paolini can carry other people through time. In this manner, be sometimes brings Hermetic masters of the past to lecture at the Institute, or takes grad students back to colloquia in the past. In this manner, students from across the centuries can meet the founders of the Ars Hermetica, and each other.

 

People who want to curry favor with Paolini sometimes address him as Ipsissimus — “Ultimate Master,” more or less, a title he earned by his transcendent magic. But he’s no fool, and recognizes the flattery. Around the Institute, people usually address him as Magister. He rolls his eyes when students call him “Doctor,” and then break into giggles — though that title, too, is precisely accurate.

 

Mundane history doesn’t know, or at least care, much about Fabio Paolini. (See his Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pio_Fabio_Paolini) He is on record more as a painter than a mystic or magus. One of his particular skills is to cast spells by painting a scene incorporating symbolically appropriate gods, plants, animals, and other images. Such allegorical “emblems” were a common genre in the Renaissance, but are little known today.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Old Man]

Department: The Greater Chickamauga School of Magical Healing

 

Dean: Miracle Max

 

"Mostly dead is slightly alive."

 

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

For myself, I will be assembling the  

 

College of Culinary Arts

The Dean is renowned potion master Alton Brown.

 

 

 

Image conjured via AI magic.  

 

 

"My mantra was to educate people - to actually give them the know-how they could use - and to do it in a very subversive kind of way. I would entertain them, and I was going to teach them whether they knew it or not."

 

-Alton Brown

[Old Man]

disregard

[Bazza]

@DShomshak I have Marsilio Ficino translation of the Corpus Hermetica.  

[Cancer]

The Department of Modern Urban Magics,  usually referred to as "M.U.M.".  "MUM's the word!"

 

Department head: Professor Goodgulf Greyteeth

[Enforcer84]

1 hour ago, Logan D. Hurricanes said:

I have been asked to post for Enforcer84 as he has an engagement.

 

He selects

Location/Domain: The Ada Lovelace School of Magitechnology 

(Also known as the College of Artifice)

Dean: Arthur C Clarke

 

 

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." 

 

 

"Academea can't get in the way of progress, I'm pleased to become the 47th Dean of the College of Magitechnology." 

[assault]

Department: Anatomy and Physiology.
Dean: Victor Frankenstein.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

I knew Victor would make an appearance somewhere. I was this close myself. 

[DShomshak]

I hope someone creates an Athletics Department. I'd like a cool place for my Hermetic students to... No, mustn't get ahead of myself. All in good time, as Magister Paolini likes to say.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Sociotard]

4 hours ago, Cancer said:

The Department of Modern Urban Magics,  usually referred to as "M.U.M.".  "MUM's the word!"

 

Department head: Professor Goodgulf Greyteeth

Um, what does Modern Urban Magic teach?

[death tribble]

Let's see if I can get away with this

 

'And That's When the Destruction Began Department'

 

Dean Dr Destroyer

[Cancer]

17 minutes ago, Sociotard said:

Um, what does Modern Urban Magic teach?

 

That will become more apparent, perhaps, as the draft wears on.  Let's just say that other departments accuse us of a lack of intellectual rigor or a coherent philosophy to our curriculum.  We, on the other hand, pride ourselves on greater inclusion, direct utility outside the academic realm, and much larger enrollments than the more historic departments.

[Old Man]

1 hour ago, Sociotard said:

Um, what does Modern Urban Magic teach?

 

54 minutes ago, Cancer said:

 

That will become more apparent, perhaps, as the draft wears on.  Let's just say that other departments accuse us of a lack of intellectual rigor or a coherent philosophy to our curriculum.  We, on the other hand, pride ourselves on greater inclusion, direct utility outside the academic realm, and much larger enrollments than the more historic departments.

 

So basically, engineering. 

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

16 hours ago, Cancer said:

 

That will become more apparent, perhaps, as the draft wears on.  Let's just say that other departments accuse us of a lack of intellectual rigor or a coherent philosophy to our curriculum.  We, on the other hand, pride ourselves on greater inclusion, direct utility outside the academic realm, and much larger enrollments than the more historic departments.

 

You should have retired sooner. It's clearly affected your mind. 

 

17 hours ago, death tribble said:

Let's see if I can get away with this

 

'And That's When the Destruction Began Department'

 

Dean Dr Destroyer

 

You can't. Are you saying the department is destruction? 

[Hermit]

At the risk of closing off other avenues for others...

 

I couldn't resist...

***************

"Magic is often a solitary and lonely endeavor. It is easy to become reclusive, isolated, and withdrawn. Solitaries have their role in mystic society, but the true power of magic is to be found not in the one apart, but in the many united!  I, myself, learned this. Before I had the mark of self knowledge, before I gathered the wings ascendant; i was sure all I needed were my books and my own thoughts. I was proud, I was young, i was... scared. Later I would grow to realize that it is collaborative magic that triumphs, group energies that flow best. Almost all other branches of Magic are enhanced by this area of study. Welcome to a course on Arcane Collaboration, of Mystic Synchronization.  Group magic has many names, including Circle magic, Coven Magic, and so on... but your syllabus lists it as Amicitia-mancy! After all... " Professor Sparkle shook her glorious mane "Friendship is Magic!"
Department: The Department of Magical Collaboration aka Amicitia-Mancy!
Motto: "Amicitia est Magia!"
Department Head: Dean Twilight Sparkle! (All grown up)

 

 

Collaborative Magic is the study of ..well, Collaborative Magic, and how to use groups to make a sum that is greater than it's parts. Amicitia-mancy maybe an imperfect name, as other forms of partnership arcana beyond friendship are studied here, but Dean sparkle once ran her own school and Magus University was quite eager to snag this princess among wizardesses to teach!

[Sociotard]

Oh, why not.

 

University Department: The Misrepresentation Conservatory

Dean: The Wizard of Oz

Official Motto: Vide debilus quando fortus es. Vide fortus quando debilus es.

Unofficial Motto: If you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with b******t.

 

"Give it back, Pinhead!" Dean Clarke stormed into the office.

"I will accept Dean Diggs. Or Oz, if you say it kindly. Now, I have no idea what you are talking about." The little man clinked a spoon in his tea.

"Someone broke into our school and stole a cutting edge holoprojector. Give. It. Back."

The little man pursed his lips and clinked a little longer, then took a deep sniff of his tea. "I'm afraid you department uses such technical jargon, we may not understand each other. What is a Halo Protector? Sounds like something for the Hermetics. They love halos."

"Don't give me that." Dean Clarke took a moment to breathe. Never argue angry. "Our Holoprojector. A piece of artifice that can cast illusions. It went missing, and some recent cleaning faculty disappeared too. This has every indication of your departments skullduggery. Your lot love our technomancy to back your little ... feints."

"You wound me sir. I am Oz, the Great and Mighty! I have no need of your little trinkets." He set the tea on the counter. "And with that, good day, Arthur!" A burst of smoke, and the little man was gone. The other man stormed forward and started stomping around. "Get out here! I'll find your trapdoor and test broken robots on you!"

 

Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs (O.Z.P.I.N.H.E.A.D. or Oz to his friends and Pinhead to nobody, thank you) heads the Misrepresentation Conservatory. They train wizards to manage their reputations, to let their appearance as weak or almighty be a strategic decision, not a prison. Oz himself specializes in public relations and stagecraft. He doesn't have any magic, but handles his position in a world of wizards with ease.

 

 

[Psybolt]

Department:  The College of Creatures and Treasure

 

Dean: Gary Gygax