#I would never procrastinate on an ask for four months bc it was broad as hell and infodumping takes work

[lordjackalope]

You should talk about Flint Dogwood and the Mages

Mostly the "and the mages" part lol

Alright buckle up bois, it's time. Tama no idea what details you already have so fuck it, full infodump time. @ashekeepmountain @royalspook @meadow-brook I finally did it lmaoooo

Welcome to world of the Arkane Akademy, a land of magic, wizards, and more classism than you could shake a stick at. You already know the characters so no introductions necessary.

The main thing to know about this land is that the power of the magic you wield says a lot for the power you get to have in your own life. There's a distinct caste system where the 5 great houses have the most powerful magic and, thus, control the world. Here lives:

Anchronus - the house that controls time and more metaphysical types of concepts. Time, fate, gravity, divination. They hold a significant amount of power and rule the world on the face of things.

Cerabell - The house of mental magic. Seduction, mind control, telepathy, telekinesis. They're the diplomats of the world, traveling to other countries to try to sway opinions but also working at home to protect the minds of those around them.

Eiderdown - Eiderdown is the house of summoning. They can summon anything from animals, water, fire, etc. The most important thing they do though is summon the demons that make the world work. Through contracts that typically offer freedom to wreak havoc once the contract ends, Eiderdown captures and channels the power of demons to run all of the technology of the world. A spell can do anything the mind can dream, but it takes the energy of a demon to keep a spell contained in the infrastructure of the world. Anchronus may run the world on the surface but Eiderdown holds all the power.

Escutcheon - This is the house of the physical. Healing, necromancy (lol forgot to mention that during the campaign I think), physical strength and transformation. They're the enforces but also the healers. It's a fun little dichotomy.

Oculara - This is the house of illusions and energy. Visual tricks, shields, stealth, invisibility. When a member of Oculara is around you can't trust any of your senses. They can convince you the desert around you is an oasis and the dirt you're shoveling into your mouth is as cool and refreshing as any sip of water has been on a hot summer day.

In this world where the families have magic and magic is power, nepotism runs rampant. The direct lineage of The Houses is closely traced and those who have their blood running through their veins find themselves in government position, cushy jobs. Families do tend to intermingle, just enough to keep the incest out. More middle class workers, average joes with slightly above average jobs, can generally trace their lineage back to the houses at some point in their past.

These middle of the line workers and the direct members of The Houses get the distinct honor of going to the Magical Academies associated with their own house. There they are taught the usual, math, science, politics. In addition however they learn the specifics of their house's magic. There is never a case of a child going to more than one school. If they stem from two families, their affinity is found and they go to that school.

All of this is not to say that us common folk don't have magic. It's there. But it's a trickle compared to the river those from The Houses possess. Some workers are taught specific spells for the grunt jobs they do but for the most part us commoners, us mages, use our magic for small conveniences. Drying off after a shower. Small light-shows to entertain a child. Magic is not formally taught to mages so ability is varied and intermittent, everything is self-taught or passed down. At best we get a wand-safety lecture in middle school akin to a sex-ed class.

All of this creates for interesting dynamics. The two worlds don't intermix and when they do the mages are always the ones in a position of subservience. We just don't have the power to fight back. Or.... at least, we didn't.

A tournament of the houses (magical houses always have tournaments, it's basically law) went spectacularly and dazzlingly awry. A group of young adults showed up to represent an academy that had previously done it's best to avoid telling the world it existed. These mages included the following:

Flint Dogwood (he/yip), a werewolf boi with limited vision who just wants to live in nature with yips family. Yip's loyal to a fault and the only person you'll ever meet who can run an interrogation through a game of fetch. Yips familiar is a seeing eye jackdaw that lets yip actually know wtf is going on around yipself.

Rute I'm From the Circus (he/they), a raccoon circus performer with brightly colored fur who has no parents but that's ok, they're from the circus. One of his top talents it's pranking those around them. Their familiar is a unicorn bear that's definitely not a bearcub wearing a fake unicorn horn.

Rowan I-forgot-the-last-name (they/them), an artist who sees visions of death all day every day and whose eyes occasionally bleed but dw it's not a big deal. They work at a coffee store owned by their two gay dads. Their familiar is a bearded dragon that can canonically dress itself in little outfits.

Hemlock I'm-not-sure-she-has-a-last-name (she/they), just an uptight girl who wants the people around her to like her but doesn't know how to make friends. Her natural solution to the problem was to trade her arm for a demon to be her bff. dw, it's not a big deal. Her familiar is a horned viper that lives in her sleeve and truly is overshined by the demon living as her arm.

The Arkane Akademy, the first ever school of it's kind. Teaching all 5 disciplines to mages. For the common people of the world it was... well... magical. Not only did these mages exist, having been trained as a team, one person from each discipline, they won. And the Houses were fucking pissed about it.

Since the event, very few people have seen those mages again. They appear to be in hiding for very good reason. Nobody knows how they did what they did. But there are whispers, mutterings. A fewer clever people who watched the broadcast and noticed. Those mages who won the tournament weren't casting magic the traditional way. There was no latin. No mutterings of memorized incantations and languages half-learned. No, these mages cast their magic with different focuses: tarot cards, art, writing, plain old English even. And their magic was powerful enough to rival that of the representatives from other houses. If those mages could do it, basically children they were, than why can't we, the common people figure it out as well. And, well, if we have the same power as those above us do... Maybe it would be time to switch up the world order a bit.