The Englewood Murder

During the early 20th century a new political party by the name of The Warriors of the Coven was gaining traction within the Concordance which supported the ideals of fascism as a mode of empowering magician culture. The party emphasized a greater level of division from mundanity, as well as wixen eugenics and the promotion of restrictive social roles as it sought to increase the overall strength of magician-kind through the implementation of militant-social concepts such as the cult of fitness as alluded to in Mein Kampf.

In 1939 the Warriors of the Coven had enough of a popularity among the Concordance and the professor electorate to appoint a new Headmaster by the name of Albertus Stienmen, an outspoken party leader of the Warriors of the Coven. Stienmen began his role as headmaster in 1940 and began implementing programs known collectively as the Waffen Doctrine. Among the new school policies contained within the Waffen Doctrine was the implementation of a student operated secret police force intended to cut back on student delinquency, reduce the number of student deaths caused by campus hazards, and to further increase the rigor and competitive spirit within the school to better mold the students into effective magicians.

The initiative was not without issue however, as the student’s empowered with the role of secret police were given higher levels of leniency in order to operate. It was eventually overheard by Adere that many of these students were even taking advantage of their leniency to exploit and harm other students, meanwhile, even more offensively, the newly appointed headmaster was physically harming students through acts of corporal punishment behind closed doors. As a result, Adere exposed the identities of several of the secret officers, and acted to undermine the new headmaster, her efforts were largely dismissed and considered merely an attribute of her already mischievous nature; the headmaster even going so far as to chuckle when asked about it, claiming “he felt welcomed by it, if nothing else, after all, hazing is a fun ritual.”

In the year 1942 the death of a student from House Valcrest named Juliana Englewood occurred shortly into the start of the second semester. School officials had ruled it an unfortunate, but not entirely unheard of event resulting from her curiosity and interest in the forbidden Veiled Forest where her body was found. Several of her fellow house-mates refused to accept the story however, and had initially attempted to petition for a second investigation before being threatened with expulsion for attempting to cause panic and academic disruption. The vocal students were branded by the Warriors of the Coven as possible traitors against Wixan kind, and even had allegations made against them that they could be working with an enemy of the school, and are themselves responsible for the students death. The spread of rumors and plight lead to the two students requesting to voluntarily leave Scholomance.

The two students reported to the headmaster’s office, soaking wet and confused, assumedly due to a final prank and hex laid upon them by cautious students. Their request was accepted and they were sent to the dungeons to await processing the following day. The next morning, as they awoke within the dungeons mere hours from their scheduled Mind Scrubbing, Headmaster Albertus Stienman was participating his usual morning walk through the courtyard where he could engage with the students in accordance to his promise to be a highly visible and accessible component of the school culture. There he was confronted by Adere who without warning or prompt swept down from the heavens above, “like a bolt of radiant plasma” as one student put it; enveloping the headmaster in her white-hot wings and rendering him nothing more than dematerialized moisture and ashes. Students looked on in shock and horror as the headmaster was very publicly, and very literally vaporized by the supposedly most peaceful of the patrons.

### Court of Concordance

The Concordance was understandably shocked and horrified by the event. An immediate judgement was made to halt all academic activities and students were asked to stay in their dormitories until a decision was made on how to best address the actions of the Emberwing Phoenix. A court case was determined necessary, and a professor from head of the four houses was summoned to represent the school's interest in the case.

The trial presided off the campus grounds within a secret London-based courthouse. The initial agenda being to determine the best course of action to take with regards to addressing Adere; platforms ranged from banishment, execution and even outright pardons on the basis of good faith. After two days of fierce debate an anonymous group of twelve students came fourth, bypassing the courts security and intruding upon the deliberation. Each of the students wore their class robes, in addition to simple faceless masks. Among them each of the houses were represented, the students claimed that the headmaster was hiding the murder of Juliana Englewood by two of the student secret police in order to prevent a loss of trust in his ideals and platform.

The initial reaction by the court was to dismiss the interlopers, however, the attending Magister attested that they both knew who the students were, and more importantly, who they represent. Upon professing this, they proclaimed that the words of the interloping students should be taken as an absolute fact. The other Concordance representatives were confused by the sudden shift in the room's narrative, and reached a peak in their dumbfounding when the attending mnemonomancer reported that he is unable to gain *any* insight into the minds of the students, or any insight into what the defending magister knew about them from superficial observations. The court ultimately then choose to recess, and upon it's return the following day initiated a series of votes, first to accept the new narrative by the students as a fact. Unanimously this was agreed upon due to the Magister's validation. Next a vote was made to dismiss all charged against Adere, and determine the sentence she carried out as just and due. The vote held a majority, with several members of the court remarking that while they disagree with the actions taken by the Emberwing Phoenix, they ultimately agree that the school would be greatly weakened by any form of disruption to her patronage.

The trail was named in honor of Juliana Englewood, as a final form of reparation to alleviate any harm done to her name, and the name of her family by the rumors created by the denounced headmaster. Albertus Steinman was then stripped of his title retroactively as the result of a post-trial decision which determined that he was officially no longer acting headmaster at the very moment of his death, thereby denying him any form of memorialization upon the school grounds.

## Spoilers!

Unknown to the public or Concordance, when the two Valcrest students began their walk from the dormitories towards the administration office to submit their request for expulsion, they found themselves compelled to walk to the Glowing Pond where they waded into the water and were subsequently dragged below the glimmering depths. They emerged soaking wet and their memories of the encounter they had within the pond was completely erased from their minds.

Gwyndolin, the house patron of the affected students had gone to her dearest friend, Aboragail, and asked sweetly for her to learn whatever truth the students know. Aboragail obliged, and learned the truth of what had happened after following a trail of mental bread crumbs, and calling upon the Rivermen to aid in the investigation. By the time the morning came Aboragail conveyed what she had learned to Gwyndolin, who in turn confided in Adere who had been in distress over the growing tensions among the student body. Gwyndolin was at a loss on how to best resolve the issue. Adere assured her, it would be resolved soon…

The students who interrupted the court meeting were none other then the Rivermen, sent on behalf of Aboragail herself. The attending Magister recognized this as a member of the Rivermen himself.