Curriculum at the Heptagram

Sorcerous Philosophy

The School of Silur

Most of the Heptagram’s students are taught of sorcery and the occult according to the methods of the the chool of Silur in virtually pure form. The Heptagram’s first Sidereal overseer studied under Silur herself and makes sure the place keeps her teachings unchanged even as it butchers her life story. Students are told that Silur was an Air Aspect during the Shogunate, and the Scarlet Empress’s tutor. In keeping with the Silurian way, in addition to spellcraft students also learn comparative linguistics and semantics, as practice for analyzing spells and as disicplines for understanding Creation. Many spells taught at the Heptagram involve symbols or communication, such as Coin of Distant Vision or Paralyzing Contradiction, or combining different forms and elements, such as Lightning Spider.

Kinetropic Science

Separate from the sorcerous teachings, the artifice program of the Heptagram is conducted according to the teachings of the Kinetropic School, with a focus on matters of Magitechnology. The existence of two sorcerous schools, opposing paradigms for understanding Creation itself, within a single sorcerous college is a source of much dissonance, with the faculties and students of the sorcery program and the magitech program oft dismissive of the others’ efforts. Domine Bhagwei, though his own Silurian leanings are known, works to keep the peace between adherents of the two schools, for the Heptagram’s purpose is to produce both the sorcerers and the sorcerer-engineers needed to preserve Creation. The number of sorcerer-engineering students at the Heptagram varies as the trend of Magitech rises and falls in the Scarlet Empire, the number of them taking such classes usually landing between one in ten and one in five, the numbers on the lower end of the spectrum.

The Seven Towers

The Heptagram does not rank its students by year but by accomplishment… those who grasp the lessons advance, those who do not remain behind (if they have not perished as a consequence of their failure).

The Seven Sided Schools has several towers, each of which is home to dormitories, classrooms, offices, libraries, and study chambers. Students begin their training in the first tower, the Hall of Terrestrial Puissance. Once they have proven mastery of occult subjects, Old Realm, and the annotated histories whose truths have been hidden from the general population, they may move on to the other Libraries.

Leaving the first library, a student selects another Hall in which to pursue sorcerous knowledge. Study of demonology in the Hall of Verdigris is reserved for only the very best students, while the Domine favours those who explore medical and Biogenesis techniques in the North Tower. Other halls include the Hall of Letters for linguistic and symbology-related sorceries, the Arc Tower for artifice & Magitechnology, the Small Tower for Thaumaturgy, and the Hall of Storms for elemental & weather magics.

Students at the Heptagram invariably spread their studies across multiple towers, though divisions remain: few students save those in the artifice program attend the Arc Tower, while students of magitech rarely attend the Hall of Letters… but both share studies in the Small Tower. A few have mused that the perfect student is one who spends a year in study within each tower, to grasp all the varied disciplines of sorcery, but the extreme difficulty of each means such an occurance would require a student of immense talents and abilities not yet seen in Creation.

The Five Lessons of Sorcery

When attending the Heptagram, much of the academic curriculum is accompanied by several Lessons, based on the Ordeals of Sorcery. By nature, grasping sorcery is an individual matter, and no set curriculum could hope to force its way into the mind of every student… instead the Lessons serve as a framework which help to guide students towards opening themselves to the sorcerous arts.

Lesson of Wood

The Lesson of Wood is a difficult trial for young Dragonblooded of the Scarlet Dynasty. Students are not treated as nobility. Silur taught that one must purge one’s mind of previous symbolic associations before studying sorcerous symbols, so students eschew family names during their training and cast off every marker of status, their robes plain and without personal ornamentation. Students swear one oath to their deepest selves each month, in order to learn the power of their words. Instructors dictate these oaths in the first semesters: never divulge the secrets of the Heptagram, never give anything to a demon, and the like. Exact oaths are tailored to the individual, but they never involve adhering to high principles or encourage loyalty to House or country. Eventually, a student earns the right to choose her promises—and is graded on their humility, sincerity and wisdom. Oaths are occasionally undertaken with such conviction and enlightenment that the onetime student still cannot break it centuries hence. Amongst these oaths comes the potent Oath of Stars.

Even those few students who do not study Sorcery itself at the Heptagram (mostly those studying artifice) find their lives touched by the Lesson of Wood.

Lesson of Air

Students of sorcery memorize thousands of glyphs and occult principles for the Lesson of Air: Silur believed that every thing’s meaning could be described by its occult characteristics, and those qualities form the basis for Silurian spell analysis. For example, the Spotted Salamander has the Qualities: Twelve Directions, Primary Wood, New Moon, Keepers of Fear, and Shadow of Greed. In some situations, therefore, it may be substituted for Ruby, whose Qualities include Shadow of Greed, Seven Directions, and Heart of Salamander.

Many occult items are kept for the students to observe, hold, test and even consume, so they have personal experience with their qualities. Even amongst those studying under the Kinetropic program, this direct tactile experience is considered of great value, though the reasons for it are explained by way of observed motonic interactions in place of symbol and quality.

Lesson of Earth

For the Lesson of Earth, trainees are locked into the Arrow Room in the lowest subcellar beneath the Heptagram’s towers. They face dangerous tests that require them to communicate with other beings, but find that normal communication no longer works: Even basic gestures are misconstrued. To survive, they must find unorthodox methods to convey meaning, or strive to understand the mindsets of those they’re speaking to so they can explain what’s necessary.

Lesson of Water

The Lesson of Water takes the form of a scavenger hunt through the Isle of Voices. Students undergo this test on their own - likely the first time a young Dynast has done anything truly alone. The student must locate and confront five spirits, with no guidance about where they should look or the nature of the challenge. When a student wins a challenge, the spirit gives her a scroll marked with a single rune… no information is given as to their use, but a student of the Heptagram ought have learned both that all symbols carry meaning, and that knowledge granted ought be protected and preserved.

Lesson of Fire

The Lesson of Fire begins in the Dominie’s office. When the faculty are confident a student is close to grasping sorcery, they are sent to attend the Domine, bearing the glyph-scrolls gained in the previous lesson. The Heptagram’s headmaster, Ragara Bhagwei, asks the student if they wish to depart, or wish to endure. The answer matters not, for Dominie Bhagwei then seals the student into one of the mazes below the school and tells her she can come out when she has assembled the five glyphs into a complete spell and learned it. She has enough food and water to survive just long enough to master the Terrestrial Circle Sorcery Charm and one spell, with careful rationing.

The only exit to the maze is sealed according to the student’s studies: those pursuing sorcery find it sealed with a magical barrier, while those studying demonology find its lock empowered by the presence of a demon released into the maze the moment food has run out. There is only one means of escape: the student must look within themselves to make the sacrifice needed to open Sorcery, and learn from the glyphs the Emerald Countermagic or Emerald Circle Banishment spell which will free them from their prison. For those who are known to have already grasped Sorcery on their own, no food is provided at all… the professors have warned students that one must know how to stop magicks before one learns how to weave them, and surely no student would disregard their words.

Thesis Project

Learning the powers of sorcery is a significant achievement, but it is not the end goal of education at the Heptagram: indeed, those attending for study of sorcery will have opened the possibilities of spellcraft years before graduation, so they might apply this knowledge to further study in the schools great libraries. Nor is mere passage of time the marker for who graduates from the school… a student might study only four years, or might study for twenty, but when they feel they are ready they will petition the Dominie and present a final occult project for the judgement of the faculty.

The nature of this project can vary widely, depending on the studen’ts area of study. While many would-be sorcerers arriving at the school imagine themselves crafting new and wondrous spells, such a thing is rare indeed: the students of Silurian sorcery instead often present researches into new or long-forgotten symbolic meanings, their works joining what has become Creation’s most extensive library of language and symbol. Those who study demonology, by tradition, engage in the summoning and binding of a demon into service to the Heptagram, the teachers judging the summoner on which spirit they have chosen, how well it is matched to its purpose, and how secure its bindings might be (the Heptagram’s faculty are known to highly value willingness in binding… a demon which through matching and convincing does not begrudge its task). Students pursuing medical studies research and prove a cure to some particular affliction or ailment. The students of artifice demonstrate practical mastery of skills through crafting of artifacts. Most commonly, given the small number of students in the program, these will be group efforts to restore or recreate ancient technologies.

Exchange Year

In addition to its own curriculum, every year the Heptagram arranges for a student to attend the Lookshy Academy of Sorcery at Valkhawsen, and receives one in return, while professors have also been known to spend a few years teaching at the other school in faculty exchanges. This one-year exchange allows sorcery and artifice students on each side to experience each others’ curricula, exchange theories, and so on. For the Heptagram’s part, it tends to favour students studying in the Arc Tower, who will benefit most from exposure to the more prevalent Magitechnology of Lookshy, while the Valkhawsen sends students studying sorcerous theory or medical spellcraft, to benefit from the Heptagram’s extensive libraries and expertise on such subjects. Both schools also favour students advancing through the Station of Journey in their sorcerous studies, for obvious reasons.

A few at the schools, and (more in their respective realms, see such exchanges as verging on treachery, but by and large both Heptagram and Valkhawsen feel there is great bond between Dragonblooded sorcerers which transcends their respective political interests, and would not tolerate any attempt to disrupt it… rare is the officer or functionary who would dare raise the ire of two schools full of sorcerers at once.