School of the Unseen
| School of the Unseen | |
|---|---|
 | |
| History | |
| Founded on | Lat-Nam, Terisiare, Dominaria |
| Status | Fallen, but reformed as the Institute of Arcane Study and Tolarian Academy on Lat-Nam |
| Membership | |
| Leader | Jodah, Gerda Äagesdotter |
| Notable members | Glissenda, Karthon, Ozmar Starkaadison, Relj, Tissellia Hannasdottir |
| Races | Humans |
| Associated Colors | |
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The School of the Unseen was a college of magic based on the island of Lat-Nam on Dominaria.
History
It was formed during the Dark Age as a descendant of the College of Lat-Nam.[1] During its first years, the school was located in the City of Shadows, but at the Start of the Ice Age, it was forced to relocate to new grounds. Able to cross the Lat-Nam straits as they dried up from the Great Glacier advancing southwards, the scholars settled on new land risen from the sea, south and west from the original island of Lat-Nam.
The School of the Unseen was the largest congregation of magic and artifice in Dominaria at the time of the ice. It lasted millennia and was led by Jodah, Archmage Eternal. There was a counterpoint to the academy, a rival school on the opposite of the continent, in the Royal Academy of Magic in Krov. The two antipode academies created a balance of the study of magic on Terisiare, similar to how the fallen Conclave of Mages and the City of Shadows had stood in contrast to each other during the Dark Age.[2]
Towards the end of the Ice Age, the archmage Gerda Äagesdotter was scheming with the necromancer Lim-Dûl to displace Jodah as leader. In a bid for power, she exchanged Jodah in return for the Bottomless Pit of Tresserhorn. The pit was magically transported beneath the school, giving Gerda access to a massive pool of black mana. Lim-Dûl was defeated in Lim-Dûl's Battle, but Jodah survived his ordeal and returned to rule the school, with Gerda placed as his second-in-command as a form of lasting punishment for her schemes.[2]
After the World Spell caused the Thaw to melt the glaciers, the school was threatened by the encroaching seas. With the Flooding of Terisiare, the veil hiding the school behind walls of glaciers was at last lifted, if only partially. The secretive group revealed itself, in part, to the western lands in the years following Freyalise’s world-shattering spell. The school's wizards and sages wandered over most of western Terisiare, from the islandstrewn waters that covered old Almaaz and north to the Ohran Mountains, and from the dwindling shores of Lat-Nam itself to the Sea of Laments. During these critical early years they helped evacuate, rescue, and resettle those whose homes and towns were lost to the floods.[3]
Jodah left with Jaya Ballard to track down the remainder of Mairsil-Lim-Dûl's spirit and left Gerda in charge of the school. It was during this time that the students of the school discovered the pit of black mana that had been forced upon Gerda by Lim-Dûl during her earlier trade-off. After the Fall of Soldev, the Soldevi Steam Beasts and Phyrexian War Beasts were teleported to the bottomless pit beneath the school, starting the Fall of the School of the Unseen. Despite Gerda's defense where she succeeded in destroying one of the War Beasts, she had no chance of saving the college. The destruction of the school was swift and total and was only stopped in the end by the newly ascended planeswalker Jaya Ballard, now rid of Mairsil-Lim-Dûl's influence.[3]
Gerda survived the fall of her school, and together with Ozmar Starkaadison, packed up the remainder of the school's inventory and left Lat-Nam for good, though she was legally granted the position of Archmage of the Unseen by Jodah. Gerda and her mages sailed far east, beyond the shores Terisiare, possibly to the Domains, with some traveling across the ocean to the Institute of Arcane Study in Tamingazin.[3]
Lat-Nam's long history of scholarship was later revived with a new campus of the Tolarian Academy built on the island, following the destruction of the original academy on Tolaria.
In-game references
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References
- ↑ Pete Venters (May 1998). "Dominian FAQ" The Duelist #25, p.34.
- ↑ a b Jeff Grubb (2000), The Eternal Ice, Wizards of the Coast
- ↑ a b c Jeff Grubb (2000) - The Shattered Alliance, Wizards of the Coast