Lecture 2: College of Animal Magic

The morning sunshine was warm and bright, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Alaconius stood under a tree, one of the ones in the planter boxes, with built-in seating all around it. He didn't want to sit. In his head, he was going over the day's lesson, less an examination of a list of spells, and more a philosophical analysis of how a category of spells could be used.
Today's lesson was on the College of Animal Magic, and he wanted to make sure his students didn't fall into the trap of thinking that only farmers and other rural residents had any use for animal magic. The truth was, there were likely more animals per square mile in a city than there was in a square mile of farmland. If you don't count insects, that is.
He put his thoughts in order, then strode up the stairs into the large columned building that housed the lecture hall he had been assigned. He paused in the doorway, letting his eyes adjust to the relative darkness of the lamp-lit hall, dimly lit in comparison to the bright sunshine outside. As usual, he had arrived before most of the students. He walked down the wide stairway between arcs of desks and chairs that ringed the central stage and lectern.
On the chalk boards behind the lectern an assistant had written, in their copperplate capitals, "College of Animal Magics" and "Magus Alaconius, Hall 4". Cheekily, the assistant had added "(If this information is a surprise to you, you are in the wrong class)".
The mage Alaconius stood behind the lectern, rolling the teacher's wand between his palms as he waited for the students to arrive. He started class two minutes later, on time, and any students arriving late would just have to copy the notes from a neighbor. 
"Greetings Students,
"Today's lecture is about the use of Animal spells in a city environment, along with the use of said spells within a civilization. I won't be talking about specific spells, unlike most of my other classes; instead, I will talk about them in more general terms.
"Too often, I have encountered the mentality that animal spells are for rustic folk, and have no real use within the confines of civilization. It is my opinion that people who over look the potential of such spells are doing the Magery profession a disservice. Off the top of my head, I can see three major uses for the college of animal magics."
"1) Spying: Until civilization realizes the potential abuse and reward of these spells, certain mages will be privy to secrets better left unknown. If there are pets within a household, how difficult would it be for an enemy mage to use the spell Rider within to have access to both sounds and sights? While I believe there are protections against the possession of animals and people, I don't think such protections are valid against mere "riders". Too often I have heard the phrase "I'd like to be a fly on that room's wall", well now, the phrase can be accurately said, within the magery profession, "I would like to be a mouse in that room". If you have a competent crime control Watch officer, such a man would hire a good animal college mage, and infiltrate the criminal organization by well placed animals - mice, birds, cats, dogs, and even horses. Once you have discovered where the crime lord's hideout is, instead of capturing him right off, capture his servants and stop his criminal successes. When the public demands something to be done about the criminals, then you "bag" the lot and parade them before the public."
"2) Pest control: One of the major problems involved with storing foods, is the control of pests. Such pests range from insects to rodents. It would not be too difficult for periodic sweepings to occur where the animal mage stands at a death trap for animals that are becoming a danger or nuisance. He merely summons them in large quantities, and waits for them to become trapped in a physically ingenious trapping environment. Another use of said summoning spells are the use of predator/prey pairings. If you desire to keep the pest species under control, summon a predator to the "killing" grounds, and then summon the pest to said killing grounds. Pest control not only applies to land type pests, but also ocean types as you will see in my third use of animal college spells...."
"3) Food sources: Imagine you are the prime animal college practitioner on a seacoast city. You stand in a boat, inside a fish trapping pen. Then you summon the fish that you need, with the amount you need determined by the size of the fish trapping pen. Gone is the need for fishing fleets, gone is the needless danger of sudden storm squalls taking the life of fishermen. And in case some of you are hearing the cries of the fishermen concerned for unemployment, said fishermen can now become fish processors, men and women who skin the fish, clean them out, pack them for sale in the markets, and so on. As a sub category of food sources, animal summoning spells can also be used as a means for capturing pelt bearing animals. No longer will prices be higher for the cost of hard to hunt animals with regards for their pelts. Of course, rare species will still be priced higher for their scarcity, but humane wizards might better summon only one such creature, give it a pain killing spell application, skin it alive, and then use the instant regeneration spell to give it a new pelt. Of course, the pelt gained in this method would be expensive! But since when have greedy men ever been concerned of better uses of their skills for the poor and needy, eh?"
"Now, I have come up with three major uses for animal control spells within the city, but alas, there is yet a fourth use for animal control spells - Warfare. Where I come from, leaders have come to depend upon infantry style warfare, rather than on cavalry. There is a reason for this, so stop muttering about the superiority of cavalry versus infantry. I am sure that some of you can see where this discussion is going, but those of you who still wonder, the problem is this: how do you fight with cavalry, when all it takes to immobilize their effectiveness is to use a master of the animal summoning college to summon the animals to him? Granted, it takes a lot of personal energy, but how effective would 200 cavalrymen be, if it only took one mage with Beast Summoning, to stand approximately 3 miles from the site of the battle? Worse yet, assume that the mage is sent to the flank of the battle and he summoned the horses into a swamp area, or into the direct path of archers? As you can see, the knights in my realm were out matched from the start. The only way they could keep from falling to the attentions of such a spell, was to buy magical protection from summoning spells, which in turn costs more money...."
"But that's not the only application to warfare that an Animal college master can use. Assume that the Knights were sufficiently wealthy to buy such protection against dastardly, cowardly mages. How could an opposing mage use animal spells that affect horses? By summoning predators of course. A mage with Summon Beast, who also knows either a flying spell, or a teleport spell, could really have fun with predators, but summoning them to one area on one side of a camp. Said summoner could then fly over the area where the beasts are being kept and watch as predators attempt to infiltrate a camp. Of course, a mage who also knows invisibility, will be even more effective against such an encampment, because the beast summoning spell expires either when the mage stops it, or the animal can see the summoning mage."
"While other mages can be devastating against armies in wartime, and I am sure there are nastier spells that can be used against large bodies of men, the idea of having mountain lions, Basilisks, and other such creatures running through the camp at night would not make me happy, nor, I suspect, the commander of any large body of men!"
"On a personal level, I once witnessed a knight come charging upon a group of adventurers with leveled lance. He charged into the thick of the group, where his target barely managed to avoid the lance point. A practicing animal college mage merely possessed the beast and allowed the knight to move out and prepare for another lance charge. Of course, the knight noticed one man falling down and not moving, but he assumed that the man was craven, and had fallen of fright! Then the knight charged the group once again, and was unprepared for the beast's sudden stop. When he barely managed to remain seated, the horse bucked and threw him off. As if that insult wasn't enough, the horse began to kick and bite at the poor knight. As you can guess, the knight lost the battle, and fell to the more bloodthirsty of the party, the animal college mage! It seemed he didn't want the country side to realize the danger such a mage presented to their way of life, and so had the horse stomp the unconscious man's head like an over-ripe melon."
"I hope I have presented enough food for thought on why animal college spells are useful, not only to the practicing mage, but also to the society that the mage is part of."
"To reiterate:
"1) Animal college spells are useful to feed civilization, either in the form of actual food, or by preserving such food from pests. By controlling the rodent population, you also keep the chance of disease to a lower probability.
"2) Spying and counterspying: Animals make for good spies until the populace becomes wise to such danger.
"3) When applied properly, animals can be guided into usefulness against an invading army, or it can render useless the animals on which an army depends."
"If there are any questions concerning the lecture I have presented, I await you in my study, after class hours. For those student's who are in need of extra credit to bolster their flagging grades, I suggest you present a refinement paper on the lecture just presented. Refinement papers are subject to debate from other members of the class, and are designed to further present useful manners in how to counter my points raised, or to touch on matters, that I left for you to touch upon."
"Question: how would the knights be better able to defend against such an animal college mage as presented in my lecture.
"Question: how would animal spells further aid a mage who needs to infiltrate an enemy's stronghold?
"Question: To what other uses can animal spells be put?"
"I expect your essays answering the questions at the beginning of our next class. And no scribbling this time. I would prefer not to have to use Knowledge magics to figure out what your papers actually say. Put what you learned in Scrivening class to work. It's part of the general curriculum for a reason."
"Ok, as this lecture is now concluded, I must head back to my office to prepare my next week's lecture on tactical and innovative uses for the college of Body Control. In keeping with the theme of civilization, I will also attempt to show how society may be affected by such a college."
"If there are any who desire to request a student/mentor style question, my office is always open. Of course, unless such questions are requested to be kept private, they will be open for general student body to discuss and/or learn from. Good day, gentlefolk."
"Class is dismissed."

Copyright (c) 1996 by Harold Carmer