The Learned Circle

* A Faction

## Overview

The world’s foremost society dedicated to the study of arcane magic and the protection of arcane spellcasters. The Circle’s power center is the great Lyceum of Arathome, but it maintains several other institutions throughout Adaam—including some in the Free States that are effectively embassies—dedicated to the education and welfare of mages.

Members of the Learned Circle traveling abroad identify themselves in two ways: the signature violet stole granted to its inductees, and if pressed, by the arcane tattoo bearing the Circle’s symbol, which they receive after demonstrating their capacity to safely and skillfully wield arcane magic.

Sorcery is little understood, a singular phenomenon only tends to add to the fear and mistrust of arcane magic. The common people do not distinguish between sorcerers and wizards (and warlocks for that matter), and a sorcerer struggling to learn to control his or her powers is likely to phase the wrath of the local populace, if they are not jailed or killed by the authorities. The Learned Circle has accepted a handful of sorcerers into its ranks, those who have proven themselves capable of controlling the power they possess. They have sought to join the Circle for the amnesty that its members enjoy, though there are many scholars in the Circle who are fascinated by the advent of sorcery and spare no opportunity to question emergent sorcerers and study the way they wield arcane magic.

## Additional Information

The Learned Circle sponsors mages and provides them a semblance of political backing in the historically superstitious Free States. On Circle property, members of the order may practice their wizardry and witchcraft without violating local law or offending religious custom--provided that spellcraft remains on Circle property and does not cause collateral damage or bring grief to the surrounding city or its citizenry. A violet stole is typically granted to members of The Circle, which grants them the right to cast unobtrusive spells unmolested.

Learned Circle scholars are traditionally best equipped to teach wizardry; this is as true in Yan's Landing as in any other major chapterhouse in the Free States. However, in terms of recognizing arcane ability and encouraging the development of mystical faculties, the Circle fully acknowledges less traditional disciplines such as sorcery and the sponsored magic wielded by warlocks when determining acceptance into its ranks.

## Yan's Landing Chapterhouse

The location of the chapterhouse in Yan's Landing is a deliberate insult when the order's power center in Telune was relocated from the capital to Yan's Landing following the regicide committed at the hands of a mage fifteen years ago. Even so, the Chapterhouse and its grounds are well-kept; the two-story stone villa is sound, stately without being conspicuous, surrounded by a yard of green grass in which grows a handful of apple trees and sits a pair of decorative scarecrows.

Mages sponsored by the Circle may walk freely throughout the city, identifying themselves as practitioners without fear of molestation (or at least overt harassment), provided they wear the violet stole granted by the Circle to those of proven ability. Individuals are afforded the right to cast spells, so long as they neither harm nor violate the sensibilities of another freeman (or woman)--and also, notably, in self-defense.

To become an apprentice of the Circle, one need only pay dues for upkeep (10 gp upon application, plus 2 gp per month). Apprenti are granted modest lodging at the chapterhouse, provided the basic accouterments needed for arcane scholarship, granted access to the Circle's library--the most substantial collection of writings in Yan's Landing--and of course, provided instruction in the Art.

Slaplen pursues a place in the Circle and will have little difficulty achieving the stole upon demonstration of his own arcane talents. More than likely, the Tiefling will choose to lodge at the chapterhouse, immersed in an enclave of magically-inclined individuals who do not share (or at least are nonvocal about) the intolerance of the common citizenry, naked prejudice against him for his fiendish heritage.

The scholar Caspen Daseris is an apprentice of the Circle in good standing, and he speaks highly of both Slaplen and Renaia, unprompted, singing the praises of their skill and also their heroic characters to the other Circle scholars--including and especially the resident Sage, Rothman, hoary graybeard of a wizard and master of the chapterhouse. A diviner of some renown, Rothman has been Sage of the Circle in Telune for nearly twenty-five years, having held the title for a decade before the chapterhouse was transplanted from Telunel to Yan's Landing. He is consulted by many people in positions of power and influence about portents and omens, as well as for lessons in history and speculation about future implications. Thus, he enjoys an honored place in society despite the Free States' considerable stigma against magery.

The Sage-lesser of the Circle chapterhouse is a plump, pink-haired gnome transmuter named Wyrowai Vai Vaeo.

Slaplen encounters a handful of other aspiring apprentices, as well as a handful of mages that come and go as they like. Of those, some are adepts, having earned not only the stole but also the sigil of the Circle.

The chapterhouse has a studious air, and a mystical one--unseen servants, familiars, and homunculi mill about the place, performing chores and errands on behalf of their masters. The cellar contains a fairly substantial alchemist's laboratory, which may be used by any stole-wearing mage or by apprentices with approval from the Sage or Sage-lesser. Use of the apparatuses is free, but reagents are not; prospective alchemists are expected to pay the Circle for any components they retrieve from the chapterhouse stores.

The Sage-lesser is also responsible for the chapterhouse's economic interests in Yan's Landing, purveying potions, scrolls, and the occasional arcane trinket to Circle mages and outside patrons for reasonable recompense. Such items are kept in a magically sealed and warded storeroom on the building's first floor.

## Notable Members

* Caspen Daseris
* Rothman
* Wyrowai Vai Vaeo
* Slaplen
* Renaia