Magisterium

The Magisterium is the name of Alothin's residence-slash-school. It takes the form of a flying castle, and is resident to at least a handful of mages at any given time.

Laws

Alothin operates the Magisterium under a strict law of hospitality. He welcomes all practitioners of the mystic arts, regardless of their specializations. He insists, however, that they live in peace with each other, leaving their problems with each other at the door, so to say. In return, they are welcome to stay for as long as they like, without having to pay a single zenny to reimburse him.

The exception to his hospitality is those that bring the practice of magic into disrepute -- magical villains are unwelcome, as a general rule, as he has no desire to give witch-hunters any ammunition to persuade the populace at large that the mystic arts are inherently evil, nor justification to come knocking on his door.

Layout

The Magisterium is composed of four levels, and the rock that it is built upon. Most of the rock is covered by the castle, but there is some exposed grassy space that acts as a reception place for flying arrivals and teleporters, as it is the only area not covered by the Magisterium's defensive anti-teleportation wards -- although those wards can be extended to cover that area, and beyond, in times of danger.

The first layer, surrounded by a high wall, is an open-air courtyard, suitable for convening many people together, whether that be for meetings, parties, or high magical rituals.

The second layer, which has several outbuildings, but is mostly interior space, is concerned with storage and sleeping space. There resides in this level an endless spring of fresh, pure water, which rushes out of the castle and into the air as a waterfall, where it magically disappears before it can fall onto whatever is below the castle at that time. There is a free cafeteria here, available to all the residents. It is equipped with a fully-stocked kitchen, and residents are allowed to prepare whatever food they like -- so long as they are not wasteful and they clean up after themselves -- as an alternative to the food that is already prepared, should that not be to their taste. While the food served is always healthy and nutritious, it is not always the tastiest selections, after all. It makes significant use of stasis charms to maintain the freshness of the food between meals, and maintaining these charms is one of the basic training tasks that new mages are given while resident here.

The third layer, has a medium-sized open space, suitable for open-air gatherings of approximately one hundred and fifty people. Inside, it holds a grand ballroom-sized hall, suitable for feasts and ceremonies alike.

The fourth layer, has space for traditional classrooms, a secure storage silo, and the watchtower that surmounts the entire castle.

The exact details of the layout and spaces are subject to change, as the same magic that Alothin used to bring it into being can also render it malleable once more, and readily shifted into an alternate design as needed. While the Magisterium is an intensely magical structure, it does not deny modern technology. Empirical wireless networks are available throughout it despite thick stone walls that would normally block transmissions, thanks to local retransmitters, for instance, and the second layer has a computer centre where those networks can be accessed by residents that lack their own technological devices. Classrooms on the fourth layer are equipped with holodesks, enabling students to instantly summon any reference materials required in an easily-viewable and manipulable format.

Location

The Magisterium can generally be found in one of three places. On Earth, it is commonly found floating in the sky to the west of West City. On Safehouse, it has been spotted over the wilds, generally barely in sight of Sanctuary. And thirdly, there is a realm of pure magic that it can be found in by mages.

Horizon Fade

It travels between these three locales by a form of magical dimensional transfer, using the realm of pure magic as an interface between the two. While in the realm of pure magic, only magical powers are able to be used -- ki wielders or psions that accompany the castle during its travels find themselves completely powerless in that realm. Additionally, mages that did not transit with it can, via meditation, find themselves teleported to it. Spells cast while in the realm of magic take only one twentieth of the power they usually take to make themselves manifest, and death is also an impossibility -- all wounds suffered in this place are regenerated overnight.

Powers and Abilities

The Magisterium has a notable magical power signature, and is easily detectable by anyone capable of detecting magical power, even from a significant distance, given the size of its signature.

However, it lacks the ability to harness and generate magical strength on its own, so Alothin will generally request anyone seeking his skills and assistance in furthering their arcane education channel magic into the Magisterium. This causes them no harm, any more than channelling magic into a spell normally does, and Alothin will generally provide a form of concentrated mana which renders the short ritual less taxing on those who are willing to contribute to the Magisterium's strength.

The Magisterium is difficult to teleport into, unauthorized by its master, but few other defences are obvious at this time, other than the presence of Alothin and his allies.