Vidvanya jen Dharmu
Vidvanya jen Dharmu (School of the Upright Path), is Kalmasa’s oldest and most prestigious acedemy for research into arcane mysteries and the instruction and certification of new practitioners in the semiotic arts. Its roots lie deep in the past, and over the sea in Utanar, where its history is intertwined with the rise of the city-state of Eshkar. Today, the flagship school is located in Solkar, but there are also branches in large cities throughout the Kalmasan Samraj.
The Vidvanya produces some of the most talented semioticians in Torvalen and is the only school from which Samraji semioticians may be recruited by law. Many graduates join the ranks of the Left Eye of Evran, or go on to serve the houses of nobles and wealthy merchants, especially those students of more modest means who were sponsored financially by the Temples or great Eshtem houses. Others become lords in their own right. A sizeable portion however never leave the academy, instead devoting themselves to research at the cost of suffering the indignity and bother of educating new students.
The academy is very expensive, but offers scholarships every year to promising, financially disadvantaged scholars. However most of its students are youth from the Eshtem noble houses, nouveau riche merchant houses or the children of elite artisans, some of which are of mixed Tlanelolli or full Calmaxtec heritage. It also accepts foreign students and there can be found scholars from Volenar, Heimval and even some hakanu of the To'ani caste from Kahala.
The Vidvanya jen Dharmu is respected and feared in and out of the Kalmasan Samraj. It is known for its discipline and fierce loyalty to the Samraj it helped found. It is also famous for having played an instrumental role during the Great Exodus in which its members enchanted the vessels that sailed over the Atyanta Ocean to Torvalen.
Recently, the Temples and some of the older Dharmati have begun to be concerned that the Vidvanya was straying from its original principles and ethics and away from its origins in the Devanic faith. These individuals are uncomfortable with students not raised in the faith and non-human students such as hakanu.
But their grumblings are largely falling on deaf ears since the Vidvanya is under pressure now from new schools of semiotics appearing throughout Torvalen that are not constrained by these traditions or the responsibilities of defending the Samraj.
History
The Vidvanja jen Dharmu was formed pre-cataclysm from the efforts of an ascetic devanic order originating in secluded ashrams in the countryside of Eshkar. Their innovation was to achieve powerful magical abilities without the shedding of blood, compacts with various spirits or the favor of individual gods.
Before the Dharmati, though minor semiotic magic was achievable by anyone, powerful magic required the aid of powerful exotic or telluric spirits or lifeforce in the form of bloodletting and animal or even human sacrifice, or the yoking of a human’s spirit to an enchantment.
The Dharmu consists of extremely focused will and fine control of surrounding perceptions based on the greater perceptions generated by symbols known and understood by the surrounding living things, particularly those of specific cultural or religious origin, such as the Adej, the holy scripture of the Eshtemi faith.
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