Joannes Institute
What we study is not merely the laws of nature and some prearranged order to the universe. We study a creature, living and breathing, that shifts, adapts, and continually creates new situations. The craft is intelligent, beautiful , expansive, and dangerous to the uninitiated.
With its proximity to the city of Lapara and its Imperial College of Engineers, Metilene never developed a proper society designated to the study of engineering and alchemy appropriate for a city of its size. With the sudden destruction of the imperial city following the Siege of 602AFE, Basileus Joseph Nikolaides organized the creation of the Joannes Institute, named after his nephew, the late Joannes IV Nikolaides, to fill the pressing needs both for the training of new arcanists and a place in which both engineers and alchemists are able to push the boundaries of their respective fields.
Structure
The institute consists of four publicly-known levels of membership, each of which is awarded its own rights and responsibilities: the Society of Initiates, the Society of Fellows, the Society of Magisters, and the Society of Grandmasters. Each of the four societies' roles is carefully detailed in the institute's imperial charter, including the process by which an individual rises from one society to the next.
The lowest order in the Joannes Institute is that of the Society of Initiates, numbering 43 apprentices as of 652AFE, who are receiving instruction in the magical sciences. Apprentices, once accepted into the Society, are expected to live in the confines of the Institute while they receive their tuition and are provided only basic accommodation and fare for the duration of their studies, although a generous gift from a benefactor on the behalf of an apprentice has been known to provide more luxurious accommodations to an apprentice. Leaving the grounds of the Institute while undergoing apprenticeship, for any grounds, is grounds for expulsion and a refusal of readmission in the future. The length of apprenticeship varies for each individual student and promising apprentices may attend meetings of the institute to present their work to the fellows. Should a majority of the fellows present vote that the apprentice has shown an adequate mastery of their craft, the apprentice is elevated to a fellow during that same meeting.
The Society of Fellows makes up the majority of the Institute’s membership, numbering 346 fellows as of 652AFE. Fully-admitted members of the Joannes Institute, fellows meet regularly to discuss the sciences of alchemy and engineering, among other topics. As fellows are not required to live in the institute, there are many in the Society that are not professional arcanists; a not insignificant portion of Achenae‘s nobility have dabbled long enough to pass their apprenticeships, through connections more than talent, and use the Institute as a social club and an amusing hobby. Granted by the charters the ability to admit members into their ranks, the fellows handle recruitment from the apprentices and from the ranks of talented outsiders. Beyond the powers of recruitment, the fellows have been delegated the power to add, with a clear majority (interpreted as 60% and above), arts and practices to the Index of Forbidden Arts.
Fixed in size at 38 members, the Society of Magisters is the lower order of leadership present in the Institute. Elected from the fellows to fill vacancies that may arise, the Magisters are each responsible for a single aspect of the Institute’s operation, from training to procurement of supplies to the maintenance of the grounds. Several magisterial positions require a firm logistical mind rather than one of genius in the magical arts, and are filled by hobbyist noblemen.
At any given time, there are to be two grandmasters of the Joannes Institute: one alchemist and one engineer. Largely a ceremonial role, each of the grandmasters is chosen by a contest of skill held once every five years, serving for ten years. The senior of the two grandmasters is the de jure head of the Institute, although the Society of Magisters has more power in the operation of the order, leaving the Society of Grandmasters responsible for setting the agenda for the meetings of the fellows.
Public Agenda
As stated in its imperial charter, the Joannes Institute exists to fulfill three primary tasks: the recruitment and training of young scientific talent, continued research into the fields of both engineering and alchemy, and the regulation of new techniques in these fields. In the pursuit of these three goals, the Institute's Society of Magisters, or those delegated by the Society, is granted a wide range of powers.
In service to the first of its goals, the institute maintains an apprenticeship and educational program, for which barracks and lecture halls are built on the institute’s campus in the Magister's Precinct. The institute holds open interviews three times a year and admits only a handful of promising individuals into its number each time. The aged and quiet-spoken magister, Damian Tzetzes, personally runs the institute’s educational program, modeled after his own time as a youthful initiate in the Imperial College of Alchemy.
The Society of Fellows, the largest body of members in the institute is responsible for the institute’s mission to advance the practice of the magical arts. Fellows assemble in biweekly meetings to discuss new theories and projects, while assessing the accomplishments of the more talented apprentices. Additionally, demonstrations are performed by members of the society displaying experimental projects the members are currently pursuing, many of which are created in the many laboratories sprinkles throughout the institute’s urban campus.
With their regular meetings, the fellows are typically well-informed with new advances in the magical sciences and are extraordinarily vocal in their denunciation of those they consider dangerous, corrupting, or immoral. After techniques and practices have been condemned and written in the institute’s Index of Forbidden Arts, anyone caught practicing them is subject to expulsion and censure from the institute. Individuals thus expelled are reported to the imperial palace.
Assets
Housed in a walled campus of thirteen imposing structures, deep in the Magisters’ Precinct, the Joannes Institute, through its imperial charter, has garnered a not inconsiderable amount of wealth. The campus is full of stores of magically-active materials and a number of alchemy and engineering laboratories. The institute is granted a monopoly on the sale and trade of enchanted materials throughout the Empire of Achenae, and is the sole organization legally entitled to export such commodities from the empire.
Persistence Breeds Success
The Eponymous Emperor
The Joannes Institute is named after the last universally recognized Basileus of the Laparans, Joannes IV Nikolaides. Personally leading the defense of the city of Lapara during the Siege of 602AFE, Joannes was slain in battle without an heir apparent, triggering a succession crisis.
Two Crafts, One Roof
The Joannes Institute is unique in the arcane institutions throughout the former Laparan Empire, in that it houses and trains both engineers and alchemists. Committed to the advancement of both disciplines, the Institute is often defined by its pursuit to unify the two fields so that one could be reasonably expected to master both.
The Founder
Signed into existence with the imperial charter granted to it by the first Basileus of the Achaenaeans, Joseph Nikolaides , the Joannes Institute would be nothing without the basileus’ patronage. Born the bastard son of Basil II Nikolaides, Joseph served as despot of Achenae during the reign of his nephew, Joannes IV Nikolaides. During the succession crisis following the death of Joannes IV, Joseph brings forth a Writ of Legitimization, and declares himself basileus from his seat in Metilene.
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