Factions of Teredahar: The Ashram Academy

The Ashram Academy was founded in TR 9500 during the waning years of Tan'Rar's dominion over the world. It was founded by the Azan, one of the Hebdomad as a school to train Warmages to fight the armies of other Hebdomad (Zero in particular) in their war. The institution has existed for nearly 600 years in present day, continuing to follow the orders of its eternal Headmaster but also branching out into other areas of education after the Headmaster's departure from Prime.

Today's Ashram Academy has two faces: The Warmage academy, which remains true to the institution's original purpose; and the more-generally-purposed "civilian" academy which trains mages, historians, and engineers of all sorts.

The banner of the Ashram Academy is Azan's personal banner, "The Triflame," with a golden chief added. It is flown at all Academy facilities and on their airships.

The "Warmage Academy"

The centre of Warmage training is the Academy's original campus: a mountainside fortress at the south end of the Ashram Vale perched above where the vale's river plunges dramatically into the Sea of Rime. It is a virtually-impregnable fortress unwelcoming to any visitors. Within its walls Warmage initiates undergo intensive military training in addition to magical studies. What magic they do study is narrowly focused on skills useful on the battlefield: evocation, abjuration, and conjuration. The finest evokers in the world, possibly in all the planes, are Ashram Academy graduates.

Into the fire!

- Warmage battle cry

Warmage basic training takes six years. Graduates of the Warmage Academy are guaranteed a place in the Warmage Corps within Azan's army. While not mandatory, refusing this posting carries a stigma of being ungrateful and not giving back to the Academy. Each year's graduating class is led by portal to Azan's headquarters on the shard-plane Gran Transit to join forces heading to front lines on any of a dozen Shards.

Veterans too old or wounded to fight anymore are often invited into teaching positions within the Academy (both as warmage instructors and civilian instructors). Many choose to retire in nearby Sylridian.

On Prime itself, the Warmage Corps function as a paramilitary force who answer to the Headmaster but are usually in the service of the Lords Masisters (the ruling council of the nation of Syldar, where the Academy is located). They serve as a reserve force when national military forces need extra firepower or magical expertise.

The "Civilian Academy"

The Ashram Academy operates a "satellite campus" (in truth larger than its original mountain campus) within the city of Sylridian, Syldar. This urban campus comprises several large lecture buildings, libraries, dormitories, and research offices sprawling over almost 1/8 of the city's extent. Students of the Ashram Academy are a large, visible part of Sylridian's population. They come from all walks of life and train in all of the fields of magic except martial forms of magic deemed too dangerous to practice in an urban environment.

Initiate-level non-Warmage training takes four years. Many wizards stay on and continue their education for several years more. The academy in Sylridian also trains officers for non-magical military forces in Syldar, its neighbours, and other planes connected via portals.

Gameplay Notes

• Warmages
• Warmage graduates will have any Lawful alignment, though Lawful Evil personalities are usually weeded out in the first few years.
• Warmages have military ranks, modeled off of real-world army ranks. 
• Warmages often have a fraternal attitude towards each other, and a massive superiority complex over other martial types. 
• Non-Warmages
• Graduates can be of any alignment, though again Evil personalities tend to filter out early.
• Non-warmage Ashram students and graduates often see the Warmages as "violent assholes with overblown egos," neither to be messed with nor taken too seriously.
• The civilian Ashram Academy trains non-mages as well in fields including Alchemy, various crafting trades, and engineering.
• The Ashram Academy has tremendous influence across Teredahar. 
• One of the 5 seats among Lords Magisters who rule the nation of Syldar is reserved for the currently-sitting mortal headmaster of the Academy (Azan's title as Headmaster is traditional). 
• If you're a Wizard on Teredahar, you've heard of the Ashram Academy, and either know someone who trained there or trained there yourself.

Next Time

Next week's article will be on a piece of tech the Elves invented that plays an important role in the magical-technological environment of Teredahar: Powerstones.