Alabaster Academy, The White Tower
The Alabaster Academy divides the study of magic up into seven schools - abjuration, conjuration, divination, enchantment, evocation, illusion and transmutation - each with its own color and archmage. Together these seven schools form all the colors of the rainbow - the spectrum of magic studied by the Academy mages.
An eighth school of magic, necromancy, is considered a "black art" by the Academy, and its study has been banned for as long as the institution has existed. The Alabaster Academy itself was founded long ago in response to a terrible necromantic accident that unleashed a plague of the undead. In order to prevent the realm from suffering another tragedy like the one that besets the Gray Tower, it was decided that a single authority overseeing the proper use of arcane magic should be founded.
Subsequently, all the civilized nations of the Greenwold acknowledge the authority of the Alabaster Academy as the sole "official" school for the study of magic. Within the Greenwold, only graduates of the Academy are allowed to call themselves "mages", a title of high praise. The greatest of the Academy mages claim the title of archmage - one serving as the leader of each school
The preeminent center for magical learning in the realm - anyone who calls themselves a wizard is required to have received training at the Alabaster Academy, or from one of its appointed sages.
Ruled by a rigid hierarchy of wizards, and independent from the rule of any nation, the Alabaster Academy seeks to guide the rulers of all lands through their wisdom and knowledge.
The towering spires of the Alabaster Academy are visible from far off – slender white peaks that rise impossibly far into the air. Though they lie within sight, actually reaching the wizards’ conclave proves a more difficult challenge. Any wanderer or explorer who passes into the rounded hills of the wizards’ territory finds themselves confidently lost. Powerful enchantments confuse even the most skilled navigators into returning again to the same location, somehow even further away from the Academy. Only members of the Academy know the path to pass through the protective barrier and enter the protected domain.
The White Tower itself seems to float in the air from afar, but actually sits upon an impossibly slender pillar of earth in the middle of what appears to be a great crater. Reaching the walls of the city requires traveling over a long bridge of solid rainbow, which the mages can turn on and off at will.
Garbed in colored robes according to their chosen school of study, the apprentices and archmages of the Academy toil ceaselessly in their quest for arcane supremacy. Occasional “experiments” escape the boundaries of the academy, wreaking havoc on the Greenwold. Recent examples include a storm of dust mephits, an ever-expanding slimy ooze, and a sentient bathtub known for its melodic singing voice.
The archmages of the Academy send advisors to the rulers of the Greenwold to counsel them and shape the flow of events they have foreseen - with varying degrees of success. Their greatest legacy to date is the realm-wide ban on the study of necromancy. Declared a dark art following a series of calamities involving the drow and the wizards of the “Gray Tower” near Stonefast, the practice of necromancy is illegal in every city in the realm.
Recent Developments
Spies of the Merchant Princes of Slew recently intercepted missives from the wizards requesting assistance from a sorcerer society within the city. The caverns underneath the Academy have become infested by nothics, and though the wizards manage to kill the creatures, they seem to return within a few weeks. Their source remains a mystery to the mages. The high council suspects a powerful magical influence must live down there to attract them. But so far, they have unearthed no such source.
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