The Academy of Thought

The Academicians of Thought have their greatest school at the Bronze Collegium in the great city of Xilong in the Dulimbai Regency, where they study their arts alongside the chroniclers of dead realms and the reckless investigators of god-husks and lost artifices. They proudly claim to be heritors of the philosophers of selfhood that aided in the selection and priming of individuals for their eventual transformation into the Made Gods. As such, they are a notoriously atheistic tradition, ever prying into unseemly matters and profane secrets, and the ancestor-cultists of Dulimbai regard them with distinct mistrust.
Academicians pride themselves on the sublimity of their tradition. Its powers may be invoked spontaneously, and are so subtle that only another Academician can tell when a spell is being cast. This elegance comes at a price, however, as such quick castings force an excessive surge of magical energy through the sorcerer’s brain tissues and leave them faintly debilitated for a time thereafter. Each spell cast spontaneously applies a cumulative -1 penalty to all hit rolls, attribute checks and saving throws until the caster can rest for half an hour. A caster can avoid incrementing this increasing penalty by routing the power through softer tissues and accepting a 1d6 damage die of injury.
Aside from this complication, the arts of the Academician are extremely cerebral in nature. None of its spells can affect the physical world in any way; they function only on the brains of living creatures, intelligent or otherwise. Lesser foes get no saving throw against their spells, but worthy enemies may make a Spirit save to resist them.