War-Scholars

The War-Scholars were a council of Nvaonese arcanists who researched and pioneered the foundations of castable magic. They were led by Irev.

History

Prior to the formation of the War-Scholars, magic was a gift reserved only for the Ildsif of the Skyrealm, since they had been exposed to the goddess's divine blood and the Nvaonese of the Deeprealm had not. Originally, scholars had hypothesized that the magic of the upper realms was due to the richer light and air they lived in; it wasn't until Irev's research that its link to blood would be recognized.
During the height of the Spellplague, the Apostle Baon came to pity the plight of the Nvaonese. As such, one of the measures she took to combat her fellow Apostles was to bequeath a portion of her divine blood upon Fastid, a half-Ildsif servant boy at the time. By then passing his blood to his sickly master, Irev, he was able to cure him; from then on, Irev became fascinated by the mechanisms of the miracle, studying it extensively while utilizing Fastid's blood to cure their ailing population.
While Irev was revered as a saintly hero for his work, the people would have been content to forget Fastid's contributions if it wasn't for Irev's insistence on elevating him above the servant caste in order to improve the quality of his life. Due to the tense political climate of the era and the discovery that any Ildsif's blood could be used as the catalyst for magic (albeit in much higher quantities than Fastid's), the monarch at the time proposed an elevation in Fastid's social status despite his mixed blood and near-infinite research funding if Irev was willing to head an organization which researched ways to utilize magic combatively. Thus, the War-Scholars were formed.
With magic on both sides of the equation now, the kingdom of Nvaon was able to confidently wage war against the Ildsif, a long and bloody affair in which the War-Scholars grew infamous for their never-before-heard-of powers in. Although Irev was distraught by the pain and death his research had wrought, having only ever been truly interested in restorative magic, he believed that their sacrifices were for the greater good of the Nvaonese people and remained steadfast as their leader until the events of Reckoning dissolved the council along with their entire kingdom.