Founding of the Academy

The story of the founding of the academy predates the formation of The Empire by over a century, and begins when the peninsula was still part of the nation of Syalir, ruled by the tyrant dragon Syalomerkhavir.
In the Summer of 466DH, two human sorcerers, a brother and sister who claimed to have been sent by The Light to depose the dragon-monarch and instill a leadership of humanity in its place. In the following months, thousands of Syalirians joined their cause, and they began to refer to themselves as the Dragonslayer Rebellion.
Throughout the Autumn and Winter of 466DH, members of the Dragonslayer Rebellion sabotaged the dragon’s army and raided its supplies, and the rebellion culminated at dawn on the spring equinox of 467DH, when the two founders ventured into the dragon’s palace in Luah Mirai, with the intent to slay the creature.
The two siblings had hoped that their sorcerous abilities, enhanced by the power of the equinox, would be enough to overpower the dragon Syalomerkhavir, but they were mistaken. As soon as the two entered the dragon’s throne room, the beast unleashed a mighty breath of flames. The sorceres had planned for this to happen and attempted to ward themselves from the fire, but they failed to account for the fact that the dragon’s flames, magical in nature, were also empowered by the equinox. The flames burned through the flesh and bones of the sorcerers, as well as burning a crater into the marble walls and floor behind them.
Enraged by the audacity of the humans who had dared claim themselves to be their rival, Syalomerkhavir declared sorcery to be illegal within the lands of their nation. Any human who was found to have sorcerous powers was forcibly conscripted to the nation’s army and sent to garrison the war-torn frontier town of Longbridge. In addition, those sorcerers were made to wear only black clothes, so all would know that they had been forsaken by The Light.

Over the next century, the sorcerers of Longbridge arranged secret meetings where they trained themselves in the use of their magic. Despite many of them finding their deaths in various military operations or assaults on the border, the sorcerer community of Longbridge persevered, and any new sorcerers sent their way was welcomed with open arms and was taught to control their powers.
When The Emissary had slew Syalomerkhavir in 561DH, founded The Empire, and repealed the dragon’s oppressive laws, the sorcerers of Longbridge were permitted to leave their town. However most of them had lived the majority of their lives in the town, forcibly separated from their families in their early teens, and so they decided to stay in the community they had formed.
With The Emissary’s blessing, they founded a small settlement on the edge of the town and announced themselves to the world as a place welcoming all people who wished to learn to control and master their natural magic potential. The founders of the community decided to preserve the tradition of wearing black, making it a symbol of pride and community, and so the place quickly became known as Crow’s Roost.

In the year 601DH, as the town of Longbridge prospered in the new-found peace and grew into a large city and began to engulf Crow’s Roost, its central library was repurposed into a magical academy, and sorcerers from all over The Empire traveled there to learn to control their magic.

Formation of the Orders

In the first half of the 8th century DH, as the Sight became recognized as a distinct form of magic from the traditional sorcery, there was a schism within the academic community about whether to continue admitting seers into the school. Eventually, in the year 722DH it was decided to form a second order within the academy, dedicated to the study of the Sight.
With the formation of the second order of the academy, the floodgates were opened. The scholars of the academy weren’t satisfied with merely researching the various forms of magic, and felt that it was their responsibility to preserve all forms of human knowledge, regardless of field. It was argued that should another Dispersal occur, and humanity would be left without all written records of history or science, the human mind was the only place for knowledge and memory.
And so in the year 728DH the minor orders of Mathematics, Alchemy, and Linguistics were founded, with Cosmology and Astronomy following closely in 732DH. Finally, Enchanting joined the ranks of the major orders soon after it was discovered in 817DH.

The classes in Crow’s Roost are divided into nine orders, three of which are Major Orders which correspond to the three primary human magics, while the other six are called Minor Orders and cover other fields of knowledge. The purpose of the orders and circles is to certify the skills of academy alumni, such as a town healer being certified as a member of the lower circle of the alchemist's order, or an engineer being a member of the order of mathematics.

The orders are as follows:

Major Orders

Minor Orders

Circles

In addition to the Orders which divide the classes by field, members of the academy are divided by Circle, which describes their mastery and experience in their respective fields. The four circles are:

Admittance Policy

Despite expanding its curriculums beyond the primary human magics, and into mundane sciences and the secondary magics (which can be performed also by non-magical individuals), Crow’s Roost is one of the few academies that continues to admit exclusively people born with magical potential. This policy often draws ire from noble families who wish for their children to receive the academy’s prestigious education, as well as from the occasional member of the academy’s higher circles whose children turn out to not have magical potential.
The academy limits the number of students that can begin studying each year, only accepting up to 24 students per year, and no more than twelve from any one major order. The order of Sorcery generally has the most students, as it is the most common form of human magic, followed closely by the Sight, while there are rarely more than three or four Enchanting students in each year group.
Due to the high demand for admittance into the academy and the personal attention each student requires in mastering their magic, joining the academy requires paying a high tuition fee, though it is occasionally subsidized or waived entirely depending on the applicant’s economic situation or their magical potential.

Most students begin their studies to join the Lower Circle when they are between 14 and 18 years of age, though younger students may be admitted if their talents are exceptional or if they may pose a threat to people if their powers go untrained. Occasionally older students are admitted, usually those whose magical abilities have only been discovered at an older age, though such applicants are rare - both due to social stigma and due to their magic usually being weaker. A notable exception is Enchanters, who, due to the lack of natural manifestations of their power, can often go decades of their life without realizing they possess magic, and as such many of the Enchanting students begin their studies only in their late twenties.

Education to join the Lower Circle usually lasts six years, equivalent to an apprenticeship in one of the trades, and a student typically finishes it when they between the ages of 20 and 25. Students who begin their studies at a younger age often delay some of their classes, spreading their education over seven or more years. The studies required to join the Upper Circle are usually slightly shorter, typically lasting four or five years depending on the Orders the student wishes to climb in.

Schooling Schedule

Every school year begins on the first day of April, marking the first day of the Spring term. Classes are held at the academy on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, with Wednesdays and the weekends being reserved for remedial classes, personal study, and chores. Each term lasts approximately ten weeks, ending exactly one week before a solstice or equinox - giving members of the higher circles time to prepare any time-sensitive work they may wish to perform during the time of elevated magic, and giving students two or more weeks to rest and visit their families before classes resume for the following term.

The Spring, Summer, and Autumn term comprise the majority of the scholarly year, with most students of the lower circles and a large portion of the higher circles going home to their families for the Winter. The academy is never empty, however, and many researchers and scholars continue their work throughout the winter, and some also offer remedial or enrichment classes during the Winter term - though these tend to be in the more academic fields like mathematics or linguistics, rather than the magical ones, due to the reduced magical Essence available during the winter months.

As people who aren't students or members of the academy's orders are normally not permitted to enter the tower, the academy's residents are required to rotate duties cooking, cleaning, and doing the various other menial work that keep the institute running. Each student and member of the academy is required to spend one such week each term, during which they are exempt from all their ordinary classes and obligations, and instead help with the various logistical endeavors throughout the academy.

Lady Lehnan Bríen (Seer, Inner Circle, Order of Cosmology)

The newest member of the Inner Circle, Lady Bríen is considered by many to be one of the most talented Dreamers in the world. She ascended to the circle in the Winter of 951DH, after her predecessor fell into a coma during his sleep over the solstice, and subsequently died a week later. Rumors spread throughout the academy that Bríen somehow assaulted him within a Dream, trapping his soul outside of his body, effectively killing him in his sleep.

No evidence was ever presented that Lady Bríen indeed caused her predecessor's death, or indeed that such dream-assassinations are even possible, and as such the academy officially dismissed these claims, at least until ample evidence can be provided. Meanwhile, Bríen teaches advanced cosmological theory classes, as well as leading research into the nature of spirits and their origins.

Madam Yelna Sournier (Sorcerer, Inner Circle, Order of Alchemy)

A skilled healer and devoted teacher, Madam Sournier is the only member of the Inner Circle to regularly teach classes to new students of the Lower Circle. She insists on being to one to teach the introductory courses on Essence Theory that every student is required to take in their first year, so that she may get to know each and every person that comes to the academy. Alongside her teaching, Madam Sournier is also a master healer, having written many books on both natural and alchemical remedies

Sir Eleihab Monds (Enchanter, Inner Circle, Order of Enchanting)

The oldest member of the academy at 176 years of age, Monds is often named "the father of Enchanting", as he was the first to prove the magic to be more than standard alchemy. In the past alchemists had struggled to understand why certain formulae and rituals worked for only a small subset of practitioners, and Monds' research proved that there was indeed a correlating factor behind that.

In his century and a half with the Academy, Monds has worked to  develop more and more sophisticated Enchanting techniques, particularly ones that could help identify Enchanters in the wider population, a task that remains a challenge to this day. In the meantime, Monds has developed many new artifacts and rituals, and has even achieved semi-immortality.

Mr. Merran Kiherra (Seer, Outer Circle, Order of the Sight)

Unlike the other members of the Outer Circle who fill their days with research, teaching, and the academy's internal and external politics, Kiherra spends most of the time in quiet meditation in the solitude of his quarters. As a devout sumnist, Kiherra believes the only way one can attain true enlightenment, is through climbing one's dreams and ascending into the Realm of Light - and so he cares little for the mundane reality of the waking world. As he often sleeps or medidates for multiple days in a row without waking, several members of the academy take it upon themselves to visit his chamber on occasion, making sure he remembers to eat and drink, lest he pass away in his Dream.

Despite his general apathy towards the physical world, Kiherra does show care for the mental and emotional wellbeing of those around him. Many students of the academy tell stories of times when he has visited them in their dreams before a big test, when they had trouble with their friends or families, or even if they were just sad or lonely. Kiherra would talk to them, listen to their troubles, and help them get to a solution.

Prince Kori Aurelianus (Enchanter, Lower Circle, Order of Enchanting)

As is traditional in the royal family and as the Emperor's own nephew, Prince Kori was sent to study at the academy from a relatively young age. Currently in the sixth year of his studies, the young prince has shown great aptitude for the academic studies, though his practical magic skills have been considered lacking by many of his teachers. As a guest of honour in the academy, the Prince is afforded a room at the top of the academy's tower alongside the members of the Inner Circle, rather than at one of the dormitories around the feet of the tower.

Despite his presence at the tower not being a political action in itself, Prince Kori has managed to stir up a large controversy after the last Autumn ball, when it was revealed that he was in a relationship with a poor candle-maker's son. The news quickly made its way to the noble court in the capital, who were enraged at the idea that the young prince should engage with someone so far below his standing, and insisted that something be done about it. Though the academy's members at first tried to ignore the outside noise, they eventually conceded, and the other boy was expelled from the academy.