The Six Schools’ Convocation approaches with Pathfinder Lost Omens Rival Academies! Before the book releases on March 5th, it’s time to let everyone in on a few school secrets.
The Convocation is ultimately an exhibition of what these six sponsor schools have to offer and a place to exchange knowledge so it outlives its discoverers. But far be it for any academic to accept that their exhibit wasn’t the most groundbreaking or that their plan for eradicating demons fell behind their rival’s!
So, the Convocation’s six schools have come together in a spirit of learning and competition, alongside their invited guests. But who are these schools, where do they learn the rest of the year, and what secrets have they brought with them?
Academy of the Reclamation
Academy of the Reclamation campus by Mirco Paganessi.
The Academy of the Reclamation may seem a strange host for this gathering of scholars. Located on the edge of the demon-haunted lands of Sarkoris, it’s so new that it’s just now celebrating its first graduating class. Its position in the fortress-city of Nerosyan does provide some surprising benefits, however, with old crusader barracks becoming temporary lodging for guests and the weapon racks of armories being replaced with bookshelves.
Still, the academy’s existence can’t be separated from the nation’s history. The people of Sarkoris were scattered for a hundred years, their lands overrun by endless swarms of demons from the Worldwound. Only once that portal to the Outer Rifts was closed could the process of healing the lands and people truly begin.
The Academy of the Reclamation seeks to gather the knowledge that dispersed along with the Sarkorian peoples. The magic—and even the names—of the land’s old gods must be reclaimed alongside all the stories, crafts, and traditions that defined the clans of Sarkoris. Somewhat controversially, the academy also embraces what the descendants of old Sarkoris learned during their long flight, even going so far as to establish a new school of wizardry.
Campfire Chronicler and Diarra Romagne by Anselmi Hyytinen.
It’s an easy mistake to see the Academy of the Reclamation as mired in sadness and loss. Although the work ahead for returning Sarkorians and their allies is vast, only a few years ago the demonic ranks and foul energy of the Outer Rifts were truly endless. Every day is now a step forward, with each demon killed or plot of land purified marking real progress toward the nation’s healing.
Spreading this hopeful message has mostly fallen to Diarra Romagne, who is making a rare appearance at the Convocation, spending most of her time traveling wherever the descendants of Sarkorian refugees can be found. Although not everyone is at a place in their life where they can join the academy, few can resist sharing their family’s story when presented with a smiling face and a plate of cookies.
Perhaps the academy’s proudest step thus far is rediscovering the rites of Isthralei, an old god of Sarkoris dedicated to protecting travelers in exchange for their stories. The campfire chroniclers who practice these rites have become an unofficial group of representatives, accepting the visiting students as their charges in Isthralei’s place.
Cobyslarni
Cobyslarni Campus by Bastien Jez.
No school gathers as much attention on the grounds of the Convocation as Cobyslarni. A massive elephantine creature simply arrived one day, the school atop his back, and settled into a convenient part of the Convocation grounds. This ancient creature, also named Cobyslarni, is the rarely heard headmaster of the school along with being its literal foundation.
The school spends most of its time in the fey realm of the First World, with excursions to other planes as suits the headmaster’s unexplained plans. Cobyslarni’s students are likewise gathered from the across the planes, but largely represent the fey. Its curriculum focuses on the magic of the fey, particularly the power of oaths and agreements. The most basic of these agreements, between students and their mentors, form the basis for Cobyslarni’s structure, as loose and chaotic as it may seem to outsiders.
With so many students visiting the mortal Universe for the first time, the culture shock is quite extreme. Time and terrain can seem suffocatingly rigid while death looms as an actual threat to fey students. Meanwhile, other attendees are left wondering whether the bird critiquing their exhibit is a professor offering honest feedback or someone’s familiar babbling random insults.
Echo Repository by Mirco Paganessi.
Along with countless smaller student exhibits of fey magic and artistry, Cobyslarni has also opened access to the Echo Repository, an extradimensional archive filled with things plucked from forgotten dreams. Although the smiling librarians are quick to offer cryptic guidance, even the students of Cobyslarni often find gremlins and mist-shrouded nightmares before they locate forgotten rites or stories lost to time.
That is not the only source for information that Cobyslarni brings, of course. The school travels through distant realms, its students learning strange secrets and gathering pacts with mysterious beings. Many students become witches by finding a single powerful being willing to enter a pact, with a chosen few even managing to catch the headmaster’s direct attention.
Students who dig deeper into the magic of pacts generally become pactbinders, tying themselves magically to many beings or even abstract concepts. The pactbinders of Cobyslarni have gathered many pacts from the Eldest to simple individual fey through their school’s long travels.
Kitharodian Academy
Kitharodian Academy campus by Mirco Paganessi.
The empire of Taldor has been a force to reckon with for thousands of years, and Kitharodian Academy is dedicated to retelling that history through songs, poetry, plays, and operas. As Taldor is a military and mercantile power in the Inner Sea, Kitharodian is a cultural power.
However, the academy and its patron are tied together through thick and thin. Taldor has declined over the centuries, becoming more insular and more focused on its past glory, and Kitharodian has followed suit. A handful of tales are told and retold, polished until they shine like gold. Meanwhile, students are compared to the centuries of artists who came before them.
While publicly staging grand productions of past emperors’ stories, it’s an open secret that many Kitharodian students turn their acting to serve the present empress, Eutropia. Although the school will carefully deny it, particularly at international events like the Convocation, many of its students go on to work as spies among the Lion Blades after graduation.
Kitharodian Academy exhibit by Mirco Paganessi.
The Convocation has presented a rare opportunity for Kith, as the students call themselves, to expand into new subject matter. These include stories from far-off lands, but also more recent events like the sealing of the Worldwound. They also have a chance to show their polished work to people who haven’t seen those stories a thousand times.
Sharing these stories and the techniques behind their telling is a pressing mission for Kith who wonder how long the empire’s relevance will last. But perhaps even then the stories still capture their larger-than-life personalities, from the heroic to the darkly comedic. The finest of Kitharodian’s students can truly inhabit those roles, like living vessels for the emperors of the past.
Retelling the same stories has fostered a strange sort of innovation, driving endlessly toward the freshest inspiration and the newest tools. While the inspiration found in moonlit trysts and raucous parties is an ephemeral thing, the workshops’ tools are useful in the shadows as often as on the stage.
And More to Come!
Alongside the other three sponsor schools we’ll be visiting next time, the Convocation is also playing host to the Sihedron Spires of New Thassilon and representatives of a dozen other schools. Story information and character options, from a new spell brought by a researcher to archetypes passed down through generations, can help you bring the schools to life in a campaign anywhere their students and graduates may travel.
Landon Winkler (they/them)
Developer
The Rival Academies (Part 1)
Tuesday, January 7, 2025
