A Brief History Of Enchantment

**A Brief History Of Enchantment By Master Ulin of Setria**
In the days of the Middle Magocracy, that chaotic period of history immediately following the Great Inundation of Perwyn, the mainland settlements that had inherited the mantle of humanity’s civilization on Callidore were forced to abandon many of the unique crafts they brought to this world and invested their energies instead in the development of enchantment.

The records of the first experiments our ancestors did in imbuing their nascent magical abilities in objects to improve and extend their utility are, alas, lost with the archipelago.  The few accounts of those experiments that survived are tauntingly vague about method and technique, focusing instead on the novelty of the result.

It is not until the early days of the Middle Magocracy, before the dawn of the Imperial Archmagi, that we begin to see the emergence of actual technique and theory within the records.  Even then, these early accounts are difficult to understand, using technical nomenclature that is often lost to antiquity.

Only during the consolidation period, after the Mage Wars that established the Archmage as supreme, did the discipline of enchantment, as we know it today, take form.

There were two basic schools or approaches to the art, at that time.  The more common involved individual thaumaturges who desired to explore the subject first gathering their researches and then seeking seclusion for study and experimentation, often in the wilderness or at the country estate of a patron.  These solitary enchanters, known professionally as remotads, sometimes produced impressive if elementary results in gramary, as enchantment was styled at the time.  Though in retrospect these essays in the craft seem almost quaint, it is from these humble beginnings that the masters of enchantment arose.

**The Great Remotads**

Chief among them was Finial of Pavonia, a country gentleman who developed the Talent in his youth and was apprenticed to a harsh but instructive master in Pavonia, an imperial province in the north of Merwyn.  His master was a remotad of renown, and Finical meticulously assembled a folio of his teaching on the art that has become the basis of much of its development.  Eventually becoming a master enchanter himself, ***Finial’s Gramary*** is by far his most impressive achievement.  Only a decade after his death it was considered a standard text in the development of the art, and served as the basis of much greatness that came later.

Another noteworthy remotad of the Magocracy was Aburon Cadellin.  The youngest son of a sea merchant, he took lessons in thaumaturgy after his Talent was revealed, and did little of note until middle age.  Chancing on a copy of Finial’s Gramary in the market town of Mair, he was captivated.  He practiced each of the techniques Finial suggested, and expanded them dramatically through trial and error.  It is from Aburon that much understanding of the nature of enchantment is taken, for the mage did not seek merely to practice the art, but to comprehend the theory behind it.

His great work, ***The Florilegum of Basic Thaumaturgy*,** laid the foundations for a much broader approach to enchantment.  Less concerned with the practical result than the theoretical understanding behind it, the ***Florilegum*** was slow to penetrate the chaotic intellectual climate at the time, which was focused on a new religious impulse in the wake of the horror of the Inundation, but once its masterful discussion of the thaumaturgical underpinnings of gramary were appreciated it, beside Finial’s Gramary, served to instruct generations of enchanters in their craft.

As fascinating as a study of the early masters of gramary were, it wasn’t until the late Middle Magocracy that the art of gramary transformed into the craft of enchantment.  The means of that transformation was the Bouleuterion.

**The Rise Of The Bouleuterion**

While the actual development of the institution known as the Bouleuterion is lost to history, it is suggested by records of the era that it grew out of the consorting of apprentice magi in “eating clubs” in the urban centers of Merwyn and Vore.  Many of these clubs were, undoubtedly, excuses for drinking and carousing with their fellows in their free time, as most fellow craftsmen do.  But as these clubs became institutionalized into cenacles, the talk became more serious and the purpose more resolute.

The early cenacles were concerned not with just academic discussion of thaumaturgy but how to transform that knowledge into professional gain.  Magic in general had reached a stagnant point of development as the Archmagi focused their efforts on administrative and political issues, not the arcane.  The Magelords were concerned with improving the productivity of the land, and the military was focused on securing the frontier against rebellious settlements and wild tribes.

The urban magi were languishing without work, frequently, as the agricultural nature of the Magocracy held little call for their sophisticated knowledge.  Yet the intellectual curiosity and the discussion of the works of the great remotads fueled an interest in turning their knowledge into goods to be sold.

By the second century of the Magocracy, the cenacles had become formal affairs, and led to the full Bouleuterion.  Designed as a way of consolidating efforts and concentrating abilities in their best area of focus, the Bouleuterion was primarily a mercantile organization established for the purpose of profit.

While it was common for the Bouleutor, as the sponsor of the Bouleuterion was known, to be wealthy or to enjoy the patronage of a wealthy family, the common enchanters who were employed were anything but.  Many were in debt for their studies, or had little employment otherwise.  The Bouleutor provided housing and livery for the duration of their employment, as well as a stipend.  This was not a benefice; the enchanter was expected to work at least fourteen or fifteen hours a day for nine days, before taking three days off to tend to their own researches, study, or just sleep.

These early Bouleuterions were small affairs, usually seven to ten enchanters who each specialized in one of the seven common areas of enchantment: Optificion, tabelliation, tabellaration, depuratation, desentiantation, testamursion, and dirigence.  Though the remotads had to do the work themselves, or use a few trusted assistants (“sloyds”), the Bouleuterions divided their work according to specialty and ability, focusing on one aspect of the work and passing along the item when they had completed it.

Eventually this developed into the dedicated groups known as concillibules, a group of specialized enchanters gathered to a specific purpose.  A Bouleuterion of moderate size would usually consist of three to nine concillibules, lead by the Symposiarch appointed by the Bouleuterion (if he did not serve in that capacity himself).  Each concillibule acted as an independent body within a greater community, governing their own affairs and apportioning their assigned work.

The Symposiarch was not the only officer of the Bouleuterion; the appointment of a fair and honest Eutaxarch to oversee the financial affairs and accounting of the institution, a Manciple to procure both common and exotic supplies needed by the body, and a Tabellarian to archive the records.  In later times other officers were included, particularly in the larger and better-organized organized Bouleuterions, including officials responsible for health, discipline, maintenance, and security.

The capital used was provided by the Bouleuterion’s patron, in most cases, as a commission or investment designed to produce either a financial return or a powerful magical item.  But rarely was the Bouleuterion established to produce just one item, or even one class of item.

**The Ordinant Bouleuterions**

In other cases, the Bouleuterion was established and supported by the pooled resources of the members.  The founders of the institution, known as an Ordinant Bouleuterion, endowed it with an oakus, or common pool of funds, to fund the endeavor.  The ordinants, as the members were known, each had a vote in the production and distribution of the work, unlike in sponsored Bouleuterions.  The oakus was portioned out in lots known as the tronc to each concillibule according to negotiations between the elected Eutaxarch and the individual Dirugents

The remainder of the oakus was used to secure and maintain a workshop, or mirabilary, as well as domestic living accommodations for the ordinants and the staff of specialized servants and craftsmen.

In Ordinant Bouleuterions the profits (if any) resulting from the sale of their work was distributed at fixed periods of time to the ordinants; this regular disbursement was in addition to their livery and stipend, and was the true incentive for the Ordinant Bouleuterions.  The price of advanced and sophisticated enchantments was high, and should a work of gramary prove successful a satisfied client was encouraged to pay a bonus to the company.

The sponsored Bouleuterions thrived primarily in the urban centers of Vore, Merwyn, Cormeer, and Remere, while the Ordinant Bouleuterions took root in Wenshar and in the coastal settlements of Alshar, Castal, and Farise.  Both institutions enjoyed prosperity during the Middle Magocracy and were influenced by other cultural factors.

The sponsored Bouleuterions often mirrored trade guilds or mercantile endeavors, while the Ordinant Bouleuterions were profoundly influenced by the rise of the monastic movement of the time. The two approaches to advanced gramary tended to produce different items and therefore favor different styles.  Ordinant Bouleuterions favored inexpensive and temporary enchantments that were nonetheless useful, while sponsored Bouleuterions often had contracts to produce permanent enchantments for civil or military use, or for the use of a wealthy patron. This did not stop the ordinants from creating permanent enchantments, or the sponsored enchanters from producing temporary ones.

Similarly, sponsored Bouleuterions were seen by their officers as permanent institutions, whereas many Ordinant Bouleuterions were avowedly temporary in nature.  Officers in the sponsored groups stayed in office for years, whereas the ordinants frequently held elections, sometimes writing into their constitutional charter the length of office or under what conditions elections could be held.

A third difference was in the promotion and education of young magi into the craft.  While both styles of institution encouraged apprenticeship, in the sponsored Bouleuterions the student enchanters (called a philonoist) took apprenticeship in common.  The ordinants’ students tended to mimic the monastic groups evolving at the time, pledging their apprenticeship to a specific mage in return for instruction.  The more mercantile sponsored institutions educated their apprentices in large classes, whereas the ordinants tended to study in small groups.

This led to the sponsored Bouleuterions eventually forming communities around or in conjunction with the great magical academies.  The Ordinant Bouleuterions, by contrast, sometimes formed alliances or cooperative agreements with monastic orders, sharing facilities and sometimes even combining efforts.  Both influences combined to flavor the character of enchantment in the Late Magocracy.

Alas, the sponsored Bouleuterions oft fell prey to their own successes.  As the institutions grew in size and stability, they also grew in maintenance and livery, requiring greater and greater sums to support them.  This encouraged the sponsored Bouleuterions to seek larger, single patrons, focusing the efforts and energies of their arcane community on a few magnificent projects.  When those projects were complete, or when the donor died or lost interest in the project, often hundreds of enchanters would find themselves suddenly without support.

Though the Ordinant Bouleuterions fared better in this climate, both suffered from the confiscation of irionite by the Magocracy.  The Ordinant Bouleuterions often had no recourse to such powers, and when they did their production of gramary for sale was of smaller or temporary enchantments.  When they did manage to gain power equivalent to irionite, the results were spectacular. The shards retained by the Velho Fellowship and the Morroia Mirabiliary, both in Wenshar, allowed them to continue production of a number of minor items of very high quality right up until the Conquest.

**Enchantment at the Conquest**

During the Late Magocracy, there was a renewed interest in gramary by the Imperial government due to the encroachments of the coalition of barbarian nomad tribes on the steppes beyond the Vore river valley.  The Imperial army was decidedly too small to face the widespread threat, and while levies of conscripts from the populous south were under way, their progress was slowed by poor leadership, dissention and rebellion.  Deprived of secular means, the Archmage turned finally back to magic and enchantment.

When the Imperial warmagi were finally allowed to practice their craft unhindered by politics their results were strong.  Two hundred Imperial warmagi, leading a troop of five thousand light infantry, a thousand cavalry, and a thousand auxiliaries managed to forestall the crossing of the Vore for two full years, while the Archmage tried to secure additional troops.  Many historians look back on this ruthless use of warmagic as largely responsible for the anti-mage sentiment of the Conquest, but if that is to be the case what followed was far more worthy of the sentiment.

When the Vore was crossed and the Northern provinces lost, the reluctance of the southern provinces disappeared.  As the hordes of Kamal Kavan harassed and harried the Imperial outposts along the hastily-constructed second line of defense, the restraint previously shown by Imperial magi was gone.  Spells and enchantments that had been banned for humane reasons since before the Mage Wars of the Consolidation Period were called upon to defeat the advancing nomads.

This proved difficult, as the invasion was conducted largely in a series of small raids and advancements by the Narasi heavy cavalry.  Instead of engaging the massed might of the Imperial Army, they wisely avoided direct conflict and sought to gain territory.  These tactics were maddening to the Imperial forces, and the few decisive encounters between the two armies usually ended in Narasi defeat.  These battles came almost exclusively when warmagi were allowed full control of the engagement, for only their arts were able to locate the foe in a timely manner.

Two battles in particular bear scrutiny in regards to enchantment.  The year-long Siege of Selona was particularly successful, in terms of demonstrating the efficacy of gramary.  Though the hill-top city’s eventual fall and razing is a cultural tragedy, the tales told of the feats of enchantment used against the Narasi are intriguing, though no technical information is extant.  Stories of the brave warmagi sending suits of armor lumbering into the foe, damaging enchantments targeting the Narasi’s beloved horses, and massive magical war-engines that kept the foe at bay.  In the end, treachery, not skill at arms or gramary, was to blame for Selona’s fall.

The second battle of note was the Battle of Figden Fords, a minor engagement in terms of the war, but particularly impressive in regards to enchantment.  That was the site of Gornoldo’s fabled Land Engine, a battle-wagon bearing thick armor and pulled by a magical construct.  A construction of desperation by an over-matched defense, the Land Engine nonetheless performed admirably, successfully defending the strategic ford from four waves of Narasi warriors before the enchanted wagon was finally disabled and burned.

Despite the hopes that the Archmage put into the creation of Defender of Empires, the magical blade that was supposed to defeat the Narasi once and for all, the blade failed, due to a poor understanding of the thaumaturgy and a long lapse in proper appreciation by the Archmage.  With the fall of the Imperial capital and the capitulation of the southern provinces to the threat of war, the Conquest – with the advent of its terrible Censorate of Magic – effectively halted further practical efforts at gramary.  The great Bouleuterions were closed, the Ordinants disbanded, and magi were forbidden to congregate outside of the academy or lackluster professional leagues.

**Gramary In The Modern Age**
With the dissolution of the Censorate of Magic within the Kingdom of Castalshar, there is a new resurgence of interest in practical gramary and enchantment.  Old techniques combined with new perspectives and methods of craft promise a golden age of enchantment, lightening the labor of the peasant while enriching the noble, all at magic’s expense.  The return of irionite to properly power enchantment, combined with the efficacies involved in snowstone and other components, demonstrate the impressive power and utility such enchantments will have.

It is with the greatest respect and admiration that this work is therefore dedicated to our blessed sovereign, Rard I, King of Castalshar and Protector of Humanity.

The Arcane Orders Castalshar
Baron Minalan the Spellmonger
Master Ulin of Setria

### References

Mancour, Terry. Enchanter: APPENDIX B: Book Seven Of The Spellmonger Series . Kindle Edition.