The Ruby Order
"You might be surprised, uncle Durak, with just how familiar with a military setting and the military barracks and behaviors that I am. You asked me once what my education was like. The best way I can describe how the Ruby Order teaches acolytes and has them become fully fledged pyromancers.....is the most aggressive and hard pushed boot camp type atmosphere you can imagine. I went in an innocent child who was naive and had no conceptualization of violence, of the way of the world, or what magick was. I also went in a shy, scared child, scared of my own emotions, because of the damage they could cause. I was pushed well past my limits, verbally and physically abused, beaten down, broken down, left a hollow memory and empty vessel, until it broke me. Entirely. Once I reached that point, the training and lessons changed, and the work began to rebuild and reforge me into the woman standing before you. A woman of powerful and aggressive emotions, capable of feeling so very much, but also of being in absolute control of those feelings and their expressions. They burned me alive and from the ashes they helped me become what I had to, reforging me into the confident woman and magister you see here. They did this through drills, through constant early mornings with little sleep, through weapons and arms training, through military lessens, through military theory. There is a reason the largest percentage of warmages any province or nation can field is pyromancers, though geomancers are a close second. It is because that is the sort of training we all recieve. We are groomed for it. So worry not for me. I will be more than comfortable enough around a force of a few hundred soldier types."
Meriel Zanzibar, explaining to her 'uncle' Durak that she would be totally fine whilst traveling with a large force of soldiers.
Structure
The Ruby Order is structured in more or less the same fashion as the other seven orders, in that it is a system of schools, with master magisters and fully licensed mages eventually taking educated acolytes whom make it through the vigorous years of group schooling without failing out under their wings one on one as an apprentice. So within that, Master Magisters are the educators whom operate any school on any campus of the Magisterium that happens to house a full on school for the Ruby Order. However this is all the buerocratic paperwork and the more boring organizational logistics side of things. What becomes a far more interesting and telling look at the structure of the Ruby Order and how it differs in the methods of magickal education from its seven counterparts, is in the culture of this subsidiary organization within the umbrella of the Magisterium itself.
Culture
Within the Ruby Order, there is a heavily militarized culture and styling, and this is not just limited to the Sunfire Knights nor the Flame-Seekers, but even to the Magisters themselves. The training and methodology from the moment potential acolytes are turned over to the Order for testing and training, every moment and every aspect of those acolytes life is brutally and heavily controlled. They are physically and mentally pushed, tested to their extreme limits and beyond, and kept in a regimented and grouped sleeping quarters. They are trained with all manner of weapons and fighting methodologies, along with tactics and all manner of military knowledge. From basic survival to the basics of medicine and fieldcraft, with all things in between. All the while you are drilled, beaten, allowed to sleep very little, and constantly pushed to and beyond what anyone would expect of emotional and physical control for normal average people. Of course those being subjected to all this testing and training are not average or normal. They are well beyond average and anything but normal.
All this is done to test for weakness of control in both physical and willpower. In those first 5-7 years, depending when an acolyte comes to the Order, and what age they are, many will fail too many times. Some may even fail explosively, tearing a small hole in reality into the Void temporarily. Of course in the controlled circumstances in which this is all taking place, such mistakes are normally handled swiftly and with brutal efficiency, including disposing of the failed and disruptive . This is why magickal education is handled in the fashion that it is on Valerick and nowhere is this high strung and ever present authority.
However once you have been so educated in a group setting, in a very boot camp and military esque environment for a number of years, should you make it through that phase of the education, things get remarkably better for you. At that point, you will graduate to a proper apprentice and based upon the sorts of martial prowess you have shown, and in the various testing to push and pull at your emotions, which emotive responses you have are particularly powerful, you will be assigned to a magister of the Ruby Order. It is at this point in your education and career you will finally begin to learn to weave magick, whilst simultaneously advancing and specializing your martial training and your other more mundane skills, focusing on and mastering but a handful of the plethora of options you were first presented.
The Ruby Order's magisters are often referred to as the 'gold standard' or the 'idealogical' war-mage. Though this may seem a bold sweeping generalization, it is the very culture outlined above that, to a degree, fairly earns them that sort of reputation. They are disciplined, well drilled, with passion and fury to spare, and do not shy away from violence. But this reputation also goes further.
Like all magisters in any order, those of the Ruby Order are effected by the continual interaction with Doitean, with the manna they wield. It can cause physical changes, it strengthens emotional feelings, lowers the need for sleep, and many other notable effects upon the magisters of the Ruby over time. But it also taps into a side of passion tied to the white hot emotions. Ruby mages are known as passionate and frenzied lovers, but also the very same as fighters and warriors. Not for a Pyromancer, the mundane life of desk work, paperwork and research, or at least for very few of them. Those few are just as passionate as the others, but about knowledge, and are a bit of an abnormality compared to most. Most Pyromancers are drawn to high excitement and high risk lifestyles and endeavors, like military life or the adventuring/mercenary lifestyle. It is their very nature, they don't seem to do it on purpose. So the reputation is one well earned for this Order of the Magisterium.
All this is done to test for weakness of control in both physical and willpower. In those first 5-7 years, depending when an acolyte comes to the Order, and what age they are, many will fail too many times. Some may even fail explosively, tearing a small hole in reality into the Void temporarily. Of course in the controlled circumstances in which this is all taking place, such mistakes are normally handled swiftly and with brutal efficiency, including disposing of the failed and disruptive . This is why magickal education is handled in the fashion that it is on Valerick and nowhere is this high strung and ever present authority.
However once you have been so educated in a group setting, in a very boot camp and military esque environment for a number of years, should you make it through that phase of the education, things get remarkably better for you. At that point, you will graduate to a proper apprentice and based upon the sorts of martial prowess you have shown, and in the various testing to push and pull at your emotions, which emotive responses you have are particularly powerful, you will be assigned to a magister of the Ruby Order. It is at this point in your education and career you will finally begin to learn to weave magick, whilst simultaneously advancing and specializing your martial training and your other more mundane skills, focusing on and mastering but a handful of the plethora of options you were first presented.
The Ruby Order's magisters are often referred to as the 'gold standard' or the 'idealogical' war-mage. Though this may seem a bold sweeping generalization, it is the very culture outlined above that, to a degree, fairly earns them that sort of reputation. They are disciplined, well drilled, with passion and fury to spare, and do not shy away from violence. But this reputation also goes further.
Wielders of Fire, Guided by Flame
Like all magisters in any order, those of the Ruby Order are effected by the continual interaction with Doitean, with the manna they wield. It can cause physical changes, it strengthens emotional feelings, lowers the need for sleep, and many other notable effects upon the magisters of the Ruby over time. But it also taps into a side of passion tied to the white hot emotions. Ruby mages are known as passionate and frenzied lovers, but also the very same as fighters and warriors. Not for a Pyromancer, the mundane life of desk work, paperwork and research, or at least for very few of them. Those few are just as passionate as the others, but about knowledge, and are a bit of an abnormality compared to most. Most Pyromancers are drawn to high excitement and high risk lifestyles and endeavors, like military life or the adventuring/mercenary lifestyle. It is their very nature, they don't seem to do it on purpose. So the reputation is one well earned for this Order of the Magisterium.
Public Agenda
The Ruby Order are the order most tied to the roots of the Magisterium's founding besides the Emerald Order itself. They take part in such ancient customs with gusto, still teaching the full ensuite about monsters and horrors of this world and the Void, and the many and varied ways they can be scorched and vanquished. Like all the Orders of the Magisterium, they have a vested interest in anything to do with the Void, and do their utmost to deal with any such threats in any location they happen to be. They also, unsurprisingly, take a heavy interest in the moving and shipping of manna gems, in particular of course, rubies. They always seek to acquire such gems, as one might expect.
Assets
Like all of the Orders of the Magisterium, the Ruby Order is quite rich, for it also acts on some level as a guild. Magisters can and do charge rather exuberant fees for their services and talents, it is perhaps the only real benefit besides not getting executed as a heretic a licensed magister can enjoy. However even in this, it is not entirely for them. Some 12% of funds earned via any exercise of your magickal talents are owed to the Magisterium, and that is on top of paying the tax rate of the nation you live in.
However it is not like a magister, or indeed a Sunfire Knight or Flame-Seeker do not get value in return for this constant leeching of their fiscal earnings. This keeps their paperwork up to date and in legal order of course, but beyond that, this grants them unquestioned access to almost any library, workshop or labratory of the Magisterium as a whole, as well as shelter and accomodations at any school of the Ruby Order, unquestioned.
The Ruby Order has the most active presence on the continent of Gavis-Lune, with barrack-colleges in 7 major cities on the continent, including all four national capitals. Besides this it maintains a shared presence in four other magisterium campuses on the continent. They also have two more barrack-colleges on the continent of Durol, one in Longreach and one in Kelethan, as well as sharing facilities in Geata-Iarainn and Wulfenwood. Finally they have a barrack-college in Rydan on the continent of Wyriel, and share two more in other cities. Like all orders of the Magisterium, they are almost as wealthy as an entire country, but with a lot more decentralization to it, it is not accumlated, but in the hands of magisters and knights and seekers, always moving always working. They hold some land and property, but are not centralized like a proper government.
However it is not like a magister, or indeed a Sunfire Knight or Flame-Seeker do not get value in return for this constant leeching of their fiscal earnings. This keeps their paperwork up to date and in legal order of course, but beyond that, this grants them unquestioned access to almost any library, workshop or labratory of the Magisterium as a whole, as well as shelter and accomodations at any school of the Ruby Order, unquestioned.
The Ruby Order has the most active presence on the continent of Gavis-Lune, with barrack-colleges in 7 major cities on the continent, including all four national capitals. Besides this it maintains a shared presence in four other magisterium campuses on the continent. They also have two more barrack-colleges on the continent of Durol, one in Longreach and one in Kelethan, as well as sharing facilities in Geata-Iarainn and Wulfenwood. Finally they have a barrack-college in Rydan on the continent of Wyriel, and share two more in other cities. Like all orders of the Magisterium, they are almost as wealthy as an entire country, but with a lot more decentralization to it, it is not accumlated, but in the hands of magisters and knights and seekers, always moving always working. They hold some land and property, but are not centralized like a proper government.
History
The Ruby Order, like any part of the Magisterium, has a long, storied and fabled history. In the case of the Ruby Order, a great deal of it is tied into famous war-mages taking part in battles and wars in bold and heroic fashions, or failing in terrifying and spectacular ways. They are, on some level and in some amount, a key part of every nation's military history. The Ruby Order are indeed the world of Valerick's War-mage's and even when two nation-states scuffle, quarrel, or go to all out war, their loyalty does not waver. They will give it their all, even if facing a fellow brother or sister of the Ruby on the field of battle. They do this out of loyalty, but not only to the cause they've joined. It is a fact throughout their history, the Ruby Order has always identified with the conceptualization of being 'Valerick's War-mages' and as such, it would be an insult to that proud tradition for one or the other to stand down in such a scenario.
Passion is a Weapon, Control, a shield
Pyromancer by Keon Croucher
A pyromancer in training demonstrating their ability as part of their testing to become licensed. He will be under stress, likely a time trial, but also moving about a training arena, needing to avoid wooden practice weapons and other sparring and training devices to simulate something close to battlefield conditions.
This also depicts the styling that the Ruby Order prefers, the dress and stylings. Beneath his fashionably tailored gambeson overcoat, their will likely be a vest of chainmail, thin, unriveted, to provide some level of extra protection without being too heavy or restrictive. Rapier or Sabre and pistol is a common choice for apprentices to specialize in when it comes to their martial training, however it is by no means the only one you will see amongst pyromancers. Most if not all pyromancers do choose to forgo shields though, for if they choose to wield something in that second hand, they would rather it be more offensive power.
Founding Date
3-7-397 SuD
Type
Education, Magic
Alternative Names
Pyromancers' School
Demonym
Pyromancer
Parent Organization
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