more magic stuff

[deafens]

everything you didn't want to know.

All stories begin with a truth, and the truth in our case is this— magic is real. Established in 1809 by Jeffrey Allister, the school was first managed as a spiritual retreat for scholars of Francis Barrett's writings and philosophies on magic, operating under the name of F. Barrett Memorial Hall to divert away any public accusations of being a cult. The seminary became a refuge for magically-inclined families to teach their children the basic rules of magic. However in the years 1909-19011, a young man named Aleister Crowley had begun to rise to fame as a practitioner of magic, and father to the self-claimed Thelemites. Drawing fire from their non-magical neighbors due to the parallels of Thelemite practice and their own, the seminary relocated and re-registered as an educational institution under the name of Allister's School for Young Men. The change in scenery and approach would not last for very long. On July 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in broad daylight; his death would spark the first World War, and the downturn of various international economies would lead to the migration of several magical families from their homes. The seminary-turned-school was once again changed, this time into a refuge from the war. In a stroke of bad luck, the school did not survive the war - not financially. The property was seized and turned into a public reformation center for wayward boys, reaching its peak residence during the prelude to the Second World War, during which a pretentious clerk had submitted for the reformation center to be named after Aleister Crowley. For fourteen years, the school would be known as the Crowley Reformatory - a name that immediately went into disregard when World War Two hit the global map in full force. It was seized by Americans in 1944; as a matter of public record, it has only been referred to as a makeshift hospital, as it was uniquely protected from any attacks or bombings (by virtue of magic unbeknownst to its occupants at the time). The reformatory was one among certain properties seized by the Allied Forces to be put up for public auction, after the war. It was bought by the grandson of one of its former scholars during Jeffrey Allister's administration, who then proceeded to restore and improve the reformatory. The name as it is now known came to be during a mistranslation of its first license of operation - it was assumed that a man named Barrett Crowley was the former administrator and owner of the property, and the property was listed by said name in hopes of its previous proprietors finding it so and make a claim. (No sort of claim has yet to be made.) Finally, in 1963, the filing papers for the reformatory had "accidentally" included a hyphen as per the papers filed by its new administration. The change in administration also resulted into a change from public reformaty to a privately-operated and -funded institution, and its curriculum gradually restructured from its foundations to its eligibility requirements. It has since operated as a reformatory in name only, and has become one of the most comprehensive magical schools in existence across seven continents.

The founding principle of the school. "The magical power is in the inward or inner man. A certain proportion of the inner man longs for the external in all things. When the person is in the appropriate disposition, an appropriate connection between man and object can be attained." other notes: townsfolk are aware of the school's history from 1963 onwards, albeit relative to how much someone cares about a magical private school.

charms & talismans. The use of cursed or enchanted objects bears a long tradition in the magical community. Such objects are commonplace in magical households, but are considered improper to gift to non-magical households; the only exception to the rule are well-wishing gifts, or "blessings", and often with the unspoken rule of said enchantment lasting for a certain amount of time only. There are many forms that such objects may take; small items like jewellery are typical, but may also be in the form of silverware, smithy's tools, or weaponry. It is generally preferred to enchant objects that are already imbued with magic, or has been touched by magic. Base materials such as precious stones and bone are also preferred. Metals are considered best for protective enchantments, or for curses. As metals are brought up from the earth, and all man is fed by the earth, any magic cast on metals will be difficult to undo once wielded; as like calls to like, the enchantment is echoed between object and wielder, strengthening the bind exponentially. sacred geometry. Sacred geometry is utilized within the magical communities, though not entirely because of the philosophy of divine design. Rather, sacred geometry is used and taught within the community as a means of harnessing and controlling an individual's magic. The Barrett-Crowley was built using such designs; the school's layout is set up to attract magical energies for the purposes of training and education. This form of mathematics is also used to stabilize the flow of magic when borrowing from one's relative planes. Natural or unassisted borrowing can be unreliable; drawing symbols based on sacred geometry and using the designs as a platform for borrowing, summoning, or spellcasting, focuses the pull of one's magic. It ensures a measure of safety for the caster or summoner, in that they only call forth what they intend to, and nothing/no one else; for borrowing, it also provides an amount of stability, greatly lessening the risk of magical corruption. hunters and cursers. As can be expected, there are groups of people that hunt magic users for a number of reasons. Hunters are those who are completely human; motivations for hunting range from hatred of the unknown, revenge (magical malpractice is unfortunately common, as with any profession), or bounty. Cursers are those who hunt their own kind; to be called a curser is to be called a traitor to one's kin, and is considered a specially heinous insult. counter-magic. Counter magics, or counters, are magics specifically designed to nullify or deaden another person's magical ability. This is considered bad practice, and is the main tool that cursers use against their fellows when hunting. As the name suggests, counters are enchantments or casts that reverse the flow of magic. Magic flows outward of one's body; especially for the spiritual classes, it is the flow of such magic that dictates the strength of possessions, as their bodies generate magic that pulls the spectral, divine, demonic, and unnatural towards them. To reverse the flow of one's magic is to force the physical body to consume it. Excess magic can lead to corruption, or death; counters are essentially the pollution of the soul. the magical community. The magical community can be distinguished and categorized as the following: traditional, modern, and solitary. The traditional communities are the close-knit communities that integrate their magic through lifestyles that allow magical practice, and as such can make a living through it. Modern communities do not practice their magic publicly; often they work in professions where their lines assist them greatly, such as healing (doctors) and protection (priests and men in service). Solitary communities do not partake with the non-magical, and so they live in communities that are shielded from the rest of the world; while they conduct business with the modern world, they limit their interactions with magical people only. where does the school's $$$ come from? Publicly and legally, the school is funded by alumni and student tuition. As it's a non-profit institution, the school doesn't pay much by way of taxes, but on its own of alumni contributions and tuition fees will not support a school of roughly five hundred students plus staff and faculty. The rest of the money comes from hosting, freelancing, and farming. The BCR is a sanctuary for the magical, and has been from its inception. A benefit of this is the protection from all manner of magical dangers, and so the BCR provides lodging for monster hunters for a fee. Because of the high amounts of magic that flows through the school, the BCR is considered one of the best places to heal from magical wounds. A number of buildings on campus are warded against the students, and are kept hidden; hunters are given entry through the other gate at the back of the school, and is inaccessible from the school side of the grounds. The school staff also performs magical tasks for a price, such as spiritual mediation, exorcism, and - hilariously - detective work. The latter is often thanks to the nearby city, the police station of which does not believe in the magical but believes in a high case closure rate. (Headmistress Adlmuller often takes these cases on, mostly to spare her staff and partly because children make her itchy.) Finally, the school's greenhouses are one of the largest collections of magical flora in existence. The school sells herbs, powders, and whatnot to several businesses and clients all over the world (warding and customs fees not included in sale price). An online catalog of magical flora is available via the school's (other) website. the witching hour(s). Spellcasting is a learned skill in BCR, and one of the first lessons learned is the magic circle. Traditionally the principle of ascribing elemental properties to a place in the worldly cycle (the principle from which the planar system would develop from), the magic circle has evolved to mean the hours of the day, with each hour opening a well of magic to its widest. Unlike the conventional clock, the hours are attuned to the magic user's body clock; the first hour is set at the hour of their birth, meaning that a student born at 4:00 AM would have the 4:00-5:00 AM window as their first hour. The secret hour (also known as the thirteenth hour) is an exception, as it is not strictly limited to the physical confines of what an hour constitutes as. The secret hour can stretch or contract depending on the capacity for magic a user has; powerful and well-trained magic users can stretch their hour to days or even weeks, before the clock runs out and their bodies will need to rest. The breakdown is as follows: The First Hour - The Waking Well. The alteration of the consciousness, transporting the mind from the mundane to the magickal. The Second Hour - The Prayer Well. The hour of communion with the divine, the dead, the undead, and the unholy. The Third Hour - The Holy Well. In a similar fashion to the praying hour, the third hour is for the consecration/desecration of objects and people or as the hour to mediate or take refuge from the mundane. The Fourth Hour - The Earthly Well. The hour of elemental alignments. The Fifth Hour - The Ether. The hour in which those energies that are efficacious to the magickal working are at their peak. The Sixth Hour - The Devil's Hour. The hour in which the barriers between evil forces and the known reality are at their weakest. The Seventh Hour - The Spectral Pool. The hour in which spirits and souls are at their most tangible, and most physical, in relation to the user. The Eighth Hour - The Veil. The hour in which the bridge connecting different planes is at its strongest. The Ninth Hour - The All-Seeing Eye. The ideal hour to take advantage of non-linear time, while allowing the magician to remain with normal linear time. In the timeless reality, all things exist or have existed or will exist; this hour allows the magician to perform acts of scrying and divination with a much lowered risk of being "lost". The Tenth Hour - The Turning Wheel. The hour in which life and death are joined together. The creative and destructive forces are given form as two joined circles. The Eleventh Hour - The Temple. The hour in which physical magic is replenished or strengthened. The Twelfth Hour - The Mind Well. The hour in which the physical vessel is at its strongest, and is ideal for healing. Possessions do not take hold or at their weakest during this hour. The Secret Hour - The Catalyst. The hour in which reality's binding laws are set loose. sister and brother schools. The BCR isn't the only institution of its kind. Here are a few of the other known institutions and academies that focus on the education of magic users. La Sororité — An all girls school in southern France; the school is strictly invitation-only, but does not require tuition or fees. It is independently run, and is publicly known as a finishing school to the non-magical population. (Current BCR Headmistress Lies AdlMuller is an alumni of the school.) Colegio de Santo Tomás de Aquino — A co-ed institution in Madrid, Spain. Though relatively small compared to the BCR and La Sororité, the CSTA is the foremost university for magic users who wish to further and specialize their magical education and skill. Publicly they work with the Vatican in training clergy in identifying actual cases of possession, translating ancient prophetic texts, and basically calling either bullshit or legit on claims of divine manifestations. Gosingtian Private School — Not much is known about the GPS, other than that it operates out of Macau. Other schools have attempted to contact the school, but to little success. The Wellesley Sisters Academy — Not to be confused with the Wellesley College, the WSA is also an all girls school, and is publicly known as a liberal arts college. The WSA is one of the smaller magic schools, but is one of the more well-established in the United States. Uehara Memorial High School — Co-ed private high school in the Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The school has a dormitory system similar to the BCR, but allows its students to live off-campus if they choose. The graduating rites at Uehara Memorial involves a hunt during the celebration of the new lunar year. The JoBurg Collective — Less of a physical institution so much as a network of private educators, the South African institution actively seeks out magic users to educate and train individually. The collective maintains a three-floor office building in Johannesburg as a de-facto headquarters and containment facility. blah blah blah some other stuff here maybe someday

all c/o campus