Lucinda: Hierarchy: Difference between revisions

Lucinda teaches three things in equal measure, all being important to her and none taking importance over the other: to love magic, to love the discovery of the unknown, and to gain wisdom through the experience of arcane power. Each of the three schools that teaches in her name embodies one of these lessons.

Magic is. Love it. Do not [[fear]] what you do not understand. Come to the arms of Lucinda's faithful and learn to use your power. Embrace the Al'Noth as a gift that no one else can give you. Use it for yourself or others. Lucinda does not judge as long as it is done with passion and with respect to the Al'Noth.

The Spellgard Presage is the premier school, teaching over a thousand students now and much expanded from its previous size. In charge of this school is Docet Ricketbarker, a middleaged [[halfling]] who was instrumental in both changes in the church structure and formation of Love and Magic, the Lucinda and [[Ilsare]] sect.

For every lesson learned, there are ten lost to time. For every spell created, there are a hundred waiting to be scribed. You are here to know more, to delve, to uncover, to create. You are here to read what has come before you so you might test the limits of your understanding. You are here to travel the world and add to the knowledge of the Al'Noth. You are here to share that knowledge in the name of the Star's Mage. And you are here to find out what puts the sparkle in our Lady's eyes; the discovery of magic and magic through discovery.

The Thaumaturge is the second stage of learning, often called the Chain because it is where the Links begin to combine their knowledge and build new spells. The libraries and other collections of knowledge reside here, allowing a Link to begin researching on his or her own. Overseen by a Scrollregent, there are thick [[stone]] buildings slathered in magical protections and dedicated to the collection of arcane knowledge on [[Mistone]], in Spellgard, and on [[Alindor]] at Castle Imjam. Smaller libraries exist within Presage buildings on Dregar, Belinara, and Tilmar. Students can spend any amount of time here. Rarely will a student speed through spell development and be able to manipulate the Al'Noth in months. Usually it is a matter of years and a lifetime for some. The current Scrollregent of the Spellgard Thaumaturge, Umbek Haggerstan, has spent twenty years of his life delighting in the discovery of new spells and powers, and he espouses no desire to join the ranks of the Reaching.

All the power in the world will slip through mad fingers without wisdom. Magic is power; it grants the ability to command one's surroundings and make what you will of them. Yet, Lucinda teaches that to misuse arcane power is to fail in the love and understanding of magic. To draw too strongly on the Al'Noth and to break links of energy and strip the very air of magic are abuses. To be in the Reaching is to know both how to break the Al'Noth and why one should not.

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Housed in Spellgard, this series of vaults are the single most magically protected structures on Layonara. Here rests the Scroll of Al'Noth, the Rebus Runea, spells deemed destructive enough to unbalance the world, and rumors speak of spells that mimic the effects of Bloodpools gathering dust in the rooms as well. The vaults are located deep under the Catena Campus, and it is said that no one mage could in a lifetime dismantle the layers of spells protecting it. In fact, it would take an army of spellweavers with both arcane and divine spells and the powers of a [[rogue]] as well, which is appropriate because that is what put the protections in place to begin with.

The Tenebrium is headed by a group of three mages called Fosters, all of whom are required simultaneously to open any door, and none of which are heads of the Presages, Thaumaturge, or Reaching.

At the head of the church for decades was the Peractio, Lucinda's chosen representative. There have been five over the history of the church: two elves, a halfling, and two humans. The last Peractio was Allurial, the Queen of Mistone. She was the closest link to Lucinda who walked as a living, breathing being. She was the perfect combination of power being both a mage and a cleric. Decisions of the church, then in its more complex incarnation, were approved by her in the time of Bloodstone walking the world. After his defeat, Lucinda called her final chosen link home. Since then, no one has stepped forward who can legitimately lay claim to the title.