The Silver Quills

**The Silver Quills** were an informal discussion group formed by students of Oxenfurt Academy in the mid-1160s. Its first members initially met and became friends through a poetry club formed by Professor Hieronymous Ridcully, but would soon include figures from outside the Academy. Holding their meetings most commonly at the Alchemy Inn, the group would meet to read and discuss both published works of art and science and projects of their own. The friends eventually adopted the moniker of Silver Quills in reference to the famed second swords of the witcher guilds, from whence had come one of their founding members. Offering one another both critique and encouragement, many of the group would go on to become notable figures in their respective fields, though the group itself dissolved amicably by 1170.

## Members

* Jorstadt the Owl, a witcher of the Griffin School who compiled some of the most thorough journals on monsters and their hunting of any such guild. Though formally expelled from Oxenfurt Academy in 1166, he continued to meet regularly with the Silver Quills and through them pursued his education.
* John of Brugge, a biology student who would go on to become one of the greatest, though underappreciated, naturalists of his time. His befriending of the witcher led him to question both theories and figures popular in academia at the time, and his works are centuries ahead of his contemporaries in accuracy, if somewhat dry to read. Certain witcher schools would later adopt his works for the instruction of their own apprentices.
* Cheery, a doppler who most often took the guise of a human woman. Cheery had been framed for murder by an alp which Jorstadt and John sought, and the pair proved her innocence in the course of their pursuit. Thereafter, she began to impersonate an Academy student and befriended the rest of their group, providing a unique outside perspective to their discussions.
* Sophie of Lyria, a student in the College of Trouvereship and Poetry whose songs and lyric poems regarding love would be widely read and admired. Despite the popularity of her work, the omnipresent subtext to her writing led figures in the religious orders of the day to declare them subversive. Rather than face banishment, she accepted the choice offered to give up writing and enter a nunnery, where she was by all accounts happy to the end of her days. Her work would be credited by the 13th-century bard Dandelion as his reason for pursuing the life of a poet.
* Ludvik Feuerbach, a post-graduate several years ahead of his peers pursuing advanced degrees in philosophy and history. On the cutting edge of Oxenfurt's burgeoning radicalism, Ludvik frequently argued the gods did not exist and had been invented by human cultures to reinforce social values. A vociferous arguer in the Academy's debate club, Ludvik was nearly responsible for getting the Quills banned from the Alchemy in a night of drunken ranting, and was eventually to blame for the establishment banning students of Philosopher's Hall—a ban which stood for more than a century. His writings would influence philosophers for generations to come.

## Notes and References

* The Silver Quills are an homage to the real-world literary group called The Inklings, which included famed writers of fantasy such as J.R.R. Tolkein and C. S. Lewis. Some of its members are homages to other famous historical figures.