Magic Schools....

Status
Not open for further replies.

JPSpideyCJ

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 22, 2007
Messages
88
Reaction score
2
...... Does anyone have them? What are they like? Describe them. How old are they? How do they work? What rooms do they have? What are the teachers/mentors/academic workers like? Can you name them? What creatures roam the area, if any?

Mine is in the middle of the desert, and called Magus Academy of Magic, or the Mage Academy for short. It has three entrances, all locked on to each other by means of drawbridge, inside of these are classrooms and storerooms of magical items and property. Then there is the Courtyard in the centre of the school, and a tavern in the middle, where the Mages eat. This is small, blue and made of glass, surrouded by magic fountains of crystal blue water. The school is approximately one hundred and five years old, and trapped beneath it is a Dragon of old tales. The main building is big and cathedral style, the exception being the 'desert' Aladdin-style glass roof. There is also a massive roof classroom supported by magic clouds. One huge room below a glass roof is filled with plants, statues and waterfalls. The creatures, mainly Golems, thrive here, and in the Elemental Workshop classroom. There are many different Arts of Magic to learn, all found on my posts in the 'Magic Systems' thread. Each one has a seperate mentor for each child studyign a specific Art, or Arts for the more advanced. Another room is huge and golden, with many spiralling staircases and balconies. This is where Mage discusssions are held with the chief Arch-Mages, and where they acn demonstrate new levels of magic. Another room yet is the Library, which is where the spellbooks and information are found when a mentor is not available, or when the Mages grow older, they are expected to find out their own magic and practise it with books. The building is several stories high, and very big, filled with ancient and mysterious secrets and rewards. I ahven't yet thought of names for the mentors, but it will be fun to do so. What about you all?
 

PeeDee

Where's my tea, please...?
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 16, 2005
Messages
11,724
Reaction score
2,085
Website
peterdamien.com
I don't have one, but I have to say, Terry Pratchett's Unseen University is the best. It's like Hogwarts as it would actually be.
 

blacbird

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Messages
36,987
Reaction score
6,159
Location
The right earlobe of North America
The classic is probably Ursula LeGuin's Isle of Roke in the Earthsea Trilogy. Following Harry Potter, I wouldn't touch this device right now. Seems like a big cliché.

caw
 

Oddsocks

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 30, 2006
Messages
368
Reaction score
24
Let's see...of the six stories I'm developing (not writing all of them at once, but ploting and worldbuilding them all while writing just one), three have some form of institutionalised magic, two don't and one may/may not (it has magic but I don't know yet if there will be schools for it). My schools tend to be more like universities than schools, consisting largely of ongoing research/experimental magic, with class-like instruction a smaller element.

The classic is probably Ursula LeGuin's Isle of Roke in the Earthsea Trilogy. Following Harry Potter, I wouldn't touch this device right now. Seems like a big cliché.

caw

It really annoys me that this seems to be the case. If I mention schools for magic when talking about my stories with people, I get "But that's just ripped off Harry Potter!"

I agree that writing a story where the focus of the plot is a school-for-magic wouldn't be a great idea right now (although, I always point out that Harry Potter isn't the first to have done it). But, if you're writing a world where magic exists, is accepted and is explored to an equivalent degree to our technology, then there are going to be organised institutions for dealing in it and teaching it - there doesn't seem to be any escaping that.
 

JimmyB27

Hoopy frood
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 29, 2005
Messages
5,623
Reaction score
925
Age
44
Location
In the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable e
Website
destinydeceived.wordpress.com
although, I always point out that Harry Potter isn't the first to have done it

I've mentioned this on these boards before, but it's a good little anecdote, so I'll mention it again :p

Pratchett was apparently accused of ripping off Hogwarts with hi Unseen University. He patiently explained to the accuser that without some sort of time travel device, it was unlikely he had stolen from a novel published some 20 years after the first Discworld book.
Their next comment? "Aha! So, you're accusing her of stealing from you, then?"
 
Last edited:

Tallymark

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 30, 2006
Messages
259
Reaction score
48
It frustrates me too--magical schools are a logical thing to have, and the idea really isn't all that original. I mean, in X-men, you've also got the secret academy for teaching mutants--different genre, exact same idea.

Unfortunately, the sad fact is that for the time being, there is no avoiding the Harry Potter comparison (and the following copycat label). Even though there's been scads of books with magical schools, long before Harry Potter. As a kid I poured over bunches in libraries that I can't even remember the names of any more. Jane Yolen's Wizard's Hall was one; Diana Wynne Jones also had them (I believe she's also faced Harry Potter-copying accusations). It's an old idea. In fact, there's an article on wikipedia listing a bunch ("Works analogous to Harry Potter"). But, the readers will believe it's derivative, and the editors know that they will, so it's a risky game to play.

It's the same as how if you make a fantasy now about a boy riding a telepathic dragon, you'll get accused of copying Eragon--even though, y'know, there's the entire Pern series by Anne McCaffrey, the Pit Dragon series by Jane Yolen, and I'm sure plenty of others that predate it.
 

JimmyB27

Hoopy frood
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 29, 2005
Messages
5,623
Reaction score
925
Age
44
Location
In the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable e
Website
destinydeceived.wordpress.com
It frustrates me too--magical schools are a logical thing to have,

I've been thinking about this, and I actually don't think it is a very logical thing to have. In our world, the real one, schools, universities and other educational establishments rarely focus on just one subject. You don't often see 'science schools' or 'maths schools'. Ok, so there are some specialist schools, performing arts places and such, but even they teach all other subjects too.
One of my MCs is a student studying magic at university, but it isn't a magical university. It just happens to teach magic as one of many subjects. His best friend is an arts student at the same place.
 

Tallymark

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 30, 2006
Messages
259
Reaction score
48
That's true, although the thing about magic is that it's, in many fantasy worlds, an unequally distributed talent--many students will simply be physically unable to perform it, no matter how hard they work, because they just lack magic. This is something that doesn't apply in regular studies; a social sciences major can take a math class and, if they really work at it, at least manage, even with no talent for math whatsoever. So in that setting, something like magical technical schools or trade schools isn't too unreasonable.

I do agree though that it doesn't make much sense for magic to be the only subject, period. It's one of the things that always bothered me about Harry Potter--aren't they ever going to need to know better math than an 11 year old? XD Even the kids in X-men were learning about Shakespeare. By 'magical school' I really just meant any institution where a significant amount of magic is taught. ^_^
 

Oddsocks

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 30, 2006
Messages
368
Reaction score
24
It depends on what magic is. If it's just one system, then it might just be one subject or faculty. But it's also possible to imagine a world in which magic is so replied on that it basically makes other fields redundant (if you can heal with magic and there are enough people around to do it, is there going to be conventional medicine as well?) Or, you might imagine a world in which mage-types have some kind of monopoly on education (i.e. some kind of political/social reason for it). Basically, I think I'm trying to say that whether you have a school or just a subject within a school depends on the world/culture/situation/story/etc you're dealing with. And if your story does call for a school, that should be ok, because a lot of people have done it.
 

JPSpideyCJ

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 22, 2007
Messages
88
Reaction score
2
Okay, first off, my school doesn't teach *just* magic. It does, and it doesn't. As learned from my other magic threads there are different types of magic in my world. Necromancy, Wizardry, Chronomancy, Geomancy, Healing, all Arts studied at my school. Its really more of a tutorial institution than a true school though, since it has no 'lessons' or classess or houses. It only has a student and their own mentor to teach them their chosen Arts that they are talented in. If they are good at it then they can do them all. That's it.
 

Michael Dracon

Urban Fantasy Geek
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 9, 2007
Messages
267
Reaction score
14
My novel universe does support the existence of magic schools. But they would be small. Two or three mentors or so with around two dozen students would be about the biggest out there.

They'd be dedicated to a single type of magic (out of 6 in my novel universe). The exact method of teaching on each of these schools is up to the mentor(s) in question. This will most certainly result in many different styles of using the same type of magic.

The majority of magic users learn in from a single mentor and in tiny groups of under half a dozen in size.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.