The Rinespire

***May the world be known.*** - Motto of the Rinespire.

**The Rinespire Institute of Arcane Study**, better known as just **the Rinespire**, is the largest organisation of magic users, students and teachers in Cleocadia. Established during the Bloody Years, the school's unique teachings and methodology -  the Chirellian Circuit - have allowed them to educate the largest number of dreaming people in the history of the South. They have worked with the Coalition since its founding, and are based in Rinecaster, in the Landside of Alstice.

## **Origins**

Following the Cascade, magical knowledge was extremely limited. Thousands of books and hundreds of practitioners were lost beneath the ocean, leaving the survivors to piece together what remained. One such survivor was an Earth Djinn called Adamas, who dreamt of metal and stone. With their magic they built a great ship, the Iron Will, and they sailed it across the Great Dark Sea, seeking out as many other mages as they could find.

In time, the passengers of the Iron Will became the greatest school of magic in the world, at least for the time. But each new passenger strained the ship, and Adamas knew they needed a stable, defensible place for their knowledge to be homed. Though Alstice's policies at the time were predominently xenophobic, they saw the value in taking in such an institution - at least in return for a share of whatever they were working on. Adamas agreed, and brought the Iron Will up the River Rine. They sank it into the riverbed at the top of a waterfall, transforming it into a dam for mill-wheels to be placed. With the resources the school had gathered, Adamas raised a great fortress of white alabaster out of the earth, topped with a spiralling tower. This place and its surrounds would come to be known as Rinecaster, but the structure itself was called the Rinespire for its tallest tower. The latter name stuck for the organisation, founded by people from every corner of the sea.

Adamas would go on to be the first Mage Philamere of the Rinespire as Adamas Phi, but they only served for a few years before leaving the position, and dying of natural causes a matter of months after. The mystical metal Adamantine was named after them posthumously.

## **Practices**

When you qualify as a Mage, you come up with a pseudonym for yourself. This is traditional rather than practical, and comes out of the old fear of being truenamed. The qualification ceremony is performed in front of a pyre of blue flame, 'spellfire'. it involves the mage writing their 'old name' on a scroll before casting it into the flames, and writing their 'new name' on the qualification they receive.

Each of the past Mage Philameres is commemorated with a memento, in the form of a statue along 'Masters' Walk'. This promenade links the main buildings to the spiral tower - the office of the Mage Philamere - hence its name.

## **Magic**

The Chirellian Circuit

Spiral.

## **Hierarchy**

Going up:

* Mage. General qualification of magic. Takes about as much time as a PhD. You could feasibly become a Mage and then leave, getting employment somewhere else.
* Specialised: Abjurer, Conjurer, Diviner, Enchanter, Evoker, Illusionist, Transmuter. To have this title you must be employed by the Rinespire, and you will have a hand in teaching your magic to others.
* Archmage, head of a specific area of magic.
* Mage Philamere, the head of the Rinespire. The most powerful wizard in the world. When you take this title, your pseudonym gains the added name 'Phi' at the end, indicating your rank as Mage Philamere.

## **List of Known Members**

* Conjurer Rubrik.
* Mage Philamere Adamas Phi.
* Mage Philamere Tasmata Phi.