Education

It has been nearly two centuries since magic returned to our kind. What was once novel and ill-understood phenomena has been refined through generations and generations, documented and passed on to fresh minds who would push the boundaries ever further to the point where our capacities now are comparable to those of the Ancestral Gardeners before their collapse, when they built their cities and networks.

Techniques to develop magical potential have been refined, and where the Faculty is recognized all Gaian children are given chance to study and pursue the fields of magic.

Grades
Children begin to show signs of magic before they are ten years old (Gaians continue to refer to their age in Earth years, despite being largely unwelcome there), provided they consume an arcanically nutritious diet. These are small effects, like making warmth, manipulating water flow, changing the color of their eyes momentarily, that sort of thing, though some show more drastic signs including traumatic psychometry or conversing with beings from the wild dimensions. Early schools will nurture and refine these abilities so when they reach Higher schools, at age thirteen, they can eventually use the same principles to speak with friends on the far side of the planet or to travel across Vintergatan. The foundation provided by the grades builds, should the young mage wish for the challenge, to eventual study directly under the Faculty for the highest levels of understanding, application, and creativity – some fields are entirely impossible before a certain grade is demonstrated. When a witch demonstrates startling effects beyond their grade, where possible they are assisted by the Faculty before they become a danger to themselves.

''Here follows the grades, and the fields that are introduced with them. Many greatly powerful fields are introduced at a very young age, but a child will require years of practice and understanding to wield them to the extent of their famous potential.''

Higher Grades
''All of the fields so far introduced can be expanded upon, in wide-reaching ways. A Grade 9 witch can, should they wish, apply to a Faculty Branch to take their understanding and their abilities to greater heights.''

Mysticism
The grades represent the partial study of almost every field, in most cases the knowledge has little practical use due to the limited duration an inexperienced witch can maintain magical effects. The student can be confident with travel and communication, even some conjuration, but sustained, profound effects such as producing meals that actually nourish or perceiving the dreams of others will remain beyond their powers.

Those seeking more permanent, potent abilities will pursue the level of Mystic. Mystic study focuses on only a handful of fields, chosen by the student or imparted at the discretion of the teacher, and tends to take two years for the skills to fully reach Mystic capacity. Usually all it takes for a Branch to accept Mystic students is a good character reference, and the particular pattern of teaching varies from branch to branch.

Mystic tuition involves compulsory Runic Calligraphy.

Grand Construction, Impossible Geometries, Thanatology, and Deep Core Telepathy are among the specialist fields only developed at Mystic or higher.

Mastery
Once the teaching Faculty have deemed a student to have achieved Mysticism, they will be invited to achieve Mastery if they so wish. Continuing with the handful of fields or even fewer, the aspiring Master will work with other Masters to learn the techniques associated with the highest limits of their craft. The time to achieve this might only be months, it might be years, depending on the depth and finesse of the field. Some Mystics have even been offered Mastery by their Branch, only to decline the title, saying they still have so much to learn.

Overdrive Architecture is the most famous representation of Mastery, as it cannot be produced by mere Mysticism, but it cannot be understated that any field at Mastery will command effects that could be considered godlike.

Sorcery
The final limits of magic are not fully understood, indeed some would eagerly argue that there will be no final limit. Some witches can combine their understandings of fields they have mastered and reach truly staggering capabilities, such as altering the atmosphere of an entire planet, or creating complex life, or Overdrive Architecture of the most sublime kind.

Sorcery can be learned from another Sorcerer, but many of them feel they have better things to do than teach. The journey was difficult enough when they took it themselves, why should they want to relive it? But there are more ways to become a Sorcerer than direct tuition. Achieving Mastery in particular combinations of fields may result in a witch understanding Sorcery, and producing effects which shame their former peers.

Mages of this level are far from common, and it’s not even proven that all fields can ultimately be represented in Sorcery. Nevertheless, hundreds of Masters across Gaian space are attempting it.

The most common kinds of Sorcery are Terraforming, Cosmic Life, Cosmic Matter, and Stop. Dozens are known to be employing these abilities.

Rig Development
Until Grade 8, magic is achieved through movement, mark, word, and gesture, and useful arcana below Grade 8 can be realized without assistance. Many of the powers beyond cannot be produced unaided, some not even by a Sorcerer, and some might say that a Sorcerer can only be a Sorcerer through the cultivation of their rig – the levels of magic beyond the study of rig creation assume that the student will be using a rig, and all the fields introduced at early grades can be used to far, far greater effect with the assistance of a rig.

With Grade 8 comes the first principles of magai-technology, and while grand power stations to maintain magical fortification or starships to ferry folk or goods between stars en masse are only the purview of Masters, Grade 8 witches are more than ready to begin work on their rig, and they will be encouraged to do so. A rig is a collection of objects enchanted to store the owner’s preferred flavors of arcanic energy, which they can use as a reservoir when channeling more demanding spells to avoid the deleterious effects of intense, high level magic. Rigs usually begin with a handheld object such as a conductor’s baton, or a staff, or a pocket watch or scissors, and can expand to be rather strange indeed.

Each component of a rig can take months or years to produce, to make it appropriate to the witch’s desires and imbue it with a suitable amount of magic. Mystics, Masters, and Sorcerers will often have quite a collection of sometimes large objects that they produce from Spatial Distortions to hover behind or orbit them while they cast particularly taxing magicks. A witch will consider their rig an extension of themselves, an expression of who they are and what they have learned.

Mundane Education
Alongside the tutelage in the arcane arts, children in Early and Higher schools are taught their local history, the story of the Ancestral Gardeners, the Portal Morning, writing systems and mathematics. Where possible, schools see the value of and seek to offer subjects like music, art, various non-magical crafts, philosophy, and theology, but in truth these things are only certain to be found in the hub worlds. In farther places with lower populations, the ability to feasibly pass on a broader range of knowledge is diminished. In some cases, personal tutors will make up the difference, if the student or their family cares enough.

The general approach to non-magical education is much more free-form than the Grades.

Faculty Branches also offer courses on technically mundane subjects which are deeply tied with magical history, such as Astropaleontology, Cryptopaleontology, Xenobiology and Paleolinguistics.

Joining The Faculty
Even a Grade 9 could take a position teaching the lower Grades. For the responsibility of training further Mystics and Masters, and working at the edge of magical discovery and understanding, even a Grade 9 may apply to join the Faculty – although they must have demonstrated Distinction, the peak of their grade’s abilities, in Astronavigation, Spatial Distortion, and two other fields to be considered. Faculty-trained witches may have that particular entrance requirement relaxed on account of their further studies.

The application process and the Eclipse final exam to join the Faculty are certainly challenging trials with great responsibilities as the reward, and should not be undertaken lightly.

Falling Through The Cracks
Even with wide provision for education, it is unfortunate fact that not everyone will be able to access the system. Those who do not receive formal grading can still develop noteworthy powers under the tuition of other experienced mages. Many who received Faculty curriculum education would be shocked to know that some Gaians never saw the need for it, for themselves or their children.

Prophecy
The art of interpreting Prophecy is hard to teach, and creating Prophecy is even harder. Witches who display an interest in or talent for Prophecy will need to find participants to test the extent of their powers, it will not be taught to them formally.