Council of Arcanists
The Council of Arcanists serves as the supreme governing body of the Arcane Seekers, directing all major decisions, research efforts, and arcane experiments conducted by the order. Composed of the most powerful and visionary mages within the organization, the Council operates in secrecy and silence from high sanctums hidden within the Skyward Pillars, where the raw arcane energies are strongest.
Each member of the Council is both master of a particular arcane discipline and guardian of forbidden knowledge, sworn to guide the Seekers in the pursuit of ancient magic—while balancing the volatile risks it poses.
Structure
The Council traditionally holds seven seats, each filled by an Arcanist who bears the title of High Seeker, denoting both their magical mastery and leadership within the order. These seats are not assigned by vote or lineage, but earned through a combination of arcane achievement, insight into the Pillars, and surviving the Trials of Revelation—a ritual of binding one's essence to the ambient magical forces of the Skyward Pillars.
Each High Seeker represents a focus or philosophical approach to the Pillars' mysteries, including:
- The Seeker of Storms – Focused on elemental and atmospheric manipulation
- The Seeker of Echoes – Specialist in memory magic, lost languages, and runic translation
- The Seeker of Wounds – Concerned with temporal and reality-fracturing experiments
- The Seeker of Flameglass – Works with arcane metallurgy and the infusion of magical materials
- The Seeker of Depths – Delves into the Pillars’ foundations and planar alignments
- The Seeker of Silence – Master of veiled magic, illusions, and forbidden enchantments
- The Seeker of the First Flame – The oldest and most revered member, keeper of the original texts
Functions and Responsibilities
- Oversight of Research: The Council allocates resources, authorizes expeditions, and monitors all sanctioned magical experimentation.
- Safeguarding Lore: They maintain the Crystalline Archives, a living repository of spells, theories, and relics too dangerous to fall into lesser hands.
- Enforcing Doctrine: The Council judges internal disputes, exiles rogue Seekers, and disciplines those who defy ethical protocols—though such protocols are often vague and inconsistently enforced.
- Interfacing with the Everstorm: During rare celestial convergences, the Council enters trance-states to commune with the Pillars directly, claiming to receive “whispers” of lost knowledge or glimpses of futures shaped by their actions.
Culture
Though unified in purpose, the Council is ideologically fractured:
- The Ascendants believe the Skyward Pillars were meant to be harnessed, and advocate for bold, reality-shaping experimentation.
- The Conservators argue for restraint, urging the Seekers to act as guardians of knowledge rather than wielders of power.
- The Veiled Third—a mysterious subgroup—follows no clear alignment, instead operating in cryptic patterns that some fear are influenced by something within the Pillars themselves.
This internal tension ensures that while the Council acts with a single voice when needed, it is always on the verge of arcane schism.
Public Agenda
To the outside world, the Council of Arcanists is a myth—spoken of in stories about weather-tamers and sky-mages who manipulate lightning with thought and unmake clouds with a whisper. Even among the Arcane Seekers, few ever see the Council directly, and those who do return marked—changed in subtle ways, as if having glimpsed a truth too vast to name.
Their seal, the Spiral Pillar Sigil, is carved only into enchanted stone, and never carried in person. Wherever it appears, it signifies that the Arcane Seekers are watching, and that the winds of forgotten magic are shifting once more.
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