The Academy of Mages

Table of Contents

The most prestigious organisation in the whole of the Sérannian kingdom! And one I should have rightfully been a part of by now...

— Isabelle

Isabelle

Isabelle is a young French woman who was brought through a magical portal to Sérannie, hit with translation magic, and told to help the Séranniens beat their Dark Lord. Only, once the questing party triumphed, she was forced back to the normal world. She is rather bitter about that.

While looking for a way to go back, she writes journal entries about her time in Sérannie to not forget what happened and to prepare for her return, illustrating her notebook by sticking postits with emojis scribbles, drawing, or printing photos.

Purpose

The Academy of Mages is an organisation that is kind of similar to the Académie Française. The elite of the mages are nominated there by their peers—and with the approval of the King—and they all get to gather together.
The purpose of the Academy is to give mages an infrastructure that is there to support them in their learning and research, a place where they can experiment and debate with their peers. And to be frank, a place where they can show off and feel important.

Before anything else, being a member of the Academy is a prestige title, even more so for those on the ruling council. For that reason alone, everyone—including me—wants to be in.

In theory, because they are such experts in their domains, in addition to ruling the Academy, the members of the ruling council also serve as royal advisors. In practice, the king has his favourites and rarely bothers to consult anyone else.

The ruling council is supposed to take decisions by consensus, but the royal favourites carry a lot of weight in the debates and often end up taking the decisions.

Politics

Most of the mages of the Academy support the king since they owe him their place at the Academy. The only exceptions are individuals from the most prestigious noble Houses; indeed, their position is secured, as the king refusing them a place would cause way too much drama.

Many mages care more for the inner politics of the Academy than for that of the kingdom, and so the way they influence the king is not always in the best interests of Sérannie. A lot of them even don't bother gaining any understanding of the politics they're advising on!

The senate by Cesare Maccari (Cicero Denounces Catiline)

Members

The emblem of the academia is a prominent sarlane rune engraved on a pearl, and all members wear it on a hairpin. The colour of the pin symbolises the magical speciality of the wearer.
Almost all members of the Academy are nobles, although it is not an actual rule. Commoners just have to be extremely talented for everyone to admit they better get included in the current system before they get the idea of attempting to topple it down.

However, not that many senators are actually members, or at least most stop taking an active part in the Academy once they inherit their senator title. It is more common for younger children of noble families to be pushed towards the Academy or the officer posts in the royal army to give them something useful to do with their time.

The ruling council of the Academy is made of the most skilled—and politically connected—mages. The unofficial head of the council is, of course, Master Lurose, who is a close friend of the royal family and the most important royal adviser and who was the second-in-command in the Questing Party after Princess Jérine.

The questing party that has defeated the Dark Lord

Another extremely influential member of the council is Senator Mirina Caldère, who was the leader of the political party opposing the king until she was voted out of the post. However, despite this setback, she's still extremely prominent both in the senate and the Academy.
Mistress Gallie makes up the last mage of the trio that effectively runs the council. She got that position by actually being the most skilled mage of the Academy rather than being from a prominent political family. She is known to have very little interest in the rest of the kingdom and to only care about the Academy itself and her research.
There are more than a dozen other members in the ruling council, as the number is not limited. However, of notes are the two other mages that accompanied us in our Questing Party, Mistress Alanie and Master Samane. They both got promoted there after the defeat of the Dark Lord—just like I should have been!

And I will be, no matter what I have to do to gain what should have been rightfully mine!

Senator Mirina Caldère by AmélieIS with Artbreeder